Israel to return video equipment seized from Associated Press

The Israeli government will give back a camera and broadcasting equipment it took from The Associated Press on Tuesday. This happened after it had stopped the news organization from showing live video of Gaza. People were upset because they thought the government was getting in the way of fair journalism.

The live video of Gaza by the AP was working again on Wednesday in Israel.

The government took away AP equipment in southern Israel because they said it broke a new media law by giving pictures to Al Jazeera on TV.

Israeli leaders used a new rule on May 5 to shut down Al Jazeera, a news company from Qatar, in Israel. They took away its stuff, stopped it from showing news on TV, and made it so people in Israel couldn’t go to its websites.

After Israel took the AP’s equipment, the Biden administration, journalism groups, and an Israeli opposition leader criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and urged them to change their decision.

Israel’s communications minister, Shlomo Karhi, said on Tuesday that he has ordered to cancel the action and return the equipment to the AP on the social platform X.

Karhi said the defense department will check how news sources show live video of Gaza. Officials did not tell AP before that the location of their live camera was a problem. Instead, they kept saying that the pictures were shown live on Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera is a customer of AP. They get live video from AP and other news groups.

Lauren Easton, who is the vice-president of corporate communications at AP, said that while they are happy about this progress, they are still worried about the Israeli government using the foreign broadcaster law and independent journalists being able to work freely in Israel.

Government workers went to AP’s building in Sderot and took their equipment on Tuesday afternoon. They gave the AP a paper signed by Karhi, saying it was breaking the law for foreign broadcasters in the country.

Just before, AP was showing a wide look at the northern part of Gaza. The AP follows Israel’s military rules about what can and cannot be shown on the news. They are not allowed to broadcast information that could put soldiers in danger, like where they are moving. The video showed smoke going up in the area.

Last Thursday, the AP was told to stop broadcasting live, but they said no.

Israel’s leader in the opposing party, Yair Lapid, said the government’s action against AP was “crazy. ”

Karhi told Lapid that everyone in the government agreed to a law that says they can take away any device that has Al Jazeera on it.

Journalism groups criticized Israel for taking AP’s equipment, and the Biden administration also pushed back.

“As soon as we found out about the reports, the White House and the State Department quickly talked to Israel’s government at important meetings to show how worried we are and ask them to change this decision,” said Adrienne Watson, who speaks for the National Security Council. “A free press is very important for democracy. The media, including AP, do important work that should be respected. ”

When Israel shut down Al Jazeera’s offices, it raised concerns about press freedom in the country.

Israel has not been good at allowing press freedom during the war, according to the Foreign Press Association. They said this in a statement on Tuesday. “It has stopped foreign reporters from going to Gaza on their own. ”

The live video from Sderot shows us a rare and independent look at what’s happening in Gaza.

Israel and Al Jazeera don’t get along well because Israel thinks the news channel is not fair to their country. Netanyahu said it’s a “terror channel” that spreads hate.

Al Jazeera is one of the few international news companies that has stayed in Gaza during the war. They have been showing airstrikes and crowded hospitals, and they are saying that Israel has been committing massacres. AP is also in Gaza. The Associated Press is also located in Gaza.

In the 2021 war between Israel and Hamas, the army destroyed the building where AP’s Gaza office was located. They said that Hamas had used the building for military reasons. The AP said they didn’t know about Hamas being there, and the army didn’t show any proof to support what they said.

The fighting in Gaza started when Hamas attacked Israel and killed 1,200 people and kidnapped 250 others. More than 35,000 Palestinians have died according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. They don’t separate civilians and soldiers in their count.