Palestinian journalists protest in Gaza against Al-Jazeera closure

Dozens of Palestinian journalists participated in a solidarity rally in front of the headquarters of Al-Jazeera TV in Gaza City on Tuesday, denouncing and rejecting the decision of Israeli occupation to close its offices in the country.

During the protest organized by the governmental information office in Gaza, journalists chanted several slogans included "being a journalist is not a crime".

Head of the government information office in Gaza, Salama Ma'rouf, said that the Israeli communications minister's decision to block al-Jazeera work is an attempt to "silence the voice of truth".

Ma'rouf praised the great role al-Jazeera has played in exposing the Israeli crimes and covering the latest escalation in Jerusalem and condemned the recent statements by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which he accused al-Jazeera of "inciting violence".

For his part, director of al-Jazeera Gaza office, Wael al-Dahdouh, deplored this move taken by a state that claims to be "the only democratic state in the Middle East", expressing his surprise by the announcement of the Israeli communications minister in his justification that the decision is consistent with what has been done by some Arab countries.

He pointed out that the Qatari network will follow up the subject by taking the appropriate legal and judicial procedures, and affirmed that al-Jazeera will continue to cover the events occurring in the occupied Palestinian territories professionally and objectively.

Human rights activist Waseem al-Shanti considered the Israeli decision a blatant disregard of all international conventions that guarantee freedom of opinion and expression.

He called on the international community to intervene immediately to force Israel to respect the freedom of opinion and expression guaranteed by the conventions and charters, and stop the policy of closing the media institutions.