Al-Jazeera closed in West Bank

[Naveed Yaseen]

RAMALLAH (July 16 2009): The Palestinian Authority ordered the closure of Al-Jazeera television in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday for airing "false" information, the government said in a statement. The information ministry said that it was taking the Qatar-based satellite channel to court over a report that it aired the previous day and that its operations in the West Bank would be suspended in the meantime.

The statement said that the pan-Arab channel "has been devoting significant segments of its broadcasts to incitement against the Palestine Liberation Organisation and the Palestinian Authority".

"Despite our repeated calls to remain neutral when it covers the Palestinian issue and to be balanced when it comes to the internal Palestinian situation, the channel continues to incite against the PLO and the PA," it said. The move came a day after the channel aired a story in which senior PLO official Faruq Kaddumi accused president Mahmud Abbas of collaborating with Israel to kill veteran Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in 2004.

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