KARACHI: Pakistan’s most prominent association of journalists strongly condemned Israel’s move to ban international news organization Al Jazeera on Sunday, describing it as a “brutal curb on press freedom,” urging journalist bodies around the world to raise their voices for the Qatar-based network. 

The statement comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet voted unanimously to close Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel. The decision came weeks after Israel’s parliament passed a law allowing the temporary closure of foreign broadcasters considered to be a threat to its national security as the months-long war in Gaza drags on.

Later on Sunday, Israeli police raided Al Jazeera’s premises in East Jerusalem while satellite and cable providers took the broadcaster off air. 

“Workers strongly condemn the Israeli decision of banning telecast of Al Jazeera TV and demand its earliest restoration,” the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) said in a press release. “The PFUJ-Workers terms the decision a brutal curb on press freedom and demand that Israeli govt should give right to every media organization to work freely.”

PFUJ credited Al Jazeera for reporting “independently” on Israel’s war in Gaza, calling on journalist bodies around the world to raise their voices for freedom of media and support the Doha-based news channel. 

 “If we do not discharge our duty of raising voice for Al Jazeera the other will use the practice to silent voices in their regions,” the statement concluded. 

Al Jazeera criticized Israel’s decision to ban its broadcast in a report, saying that it is one of the few international media outlets to remain in Gaza throughout the war, broadcasting “bloody scenes of air attacks and overcrowded hospitals, and accusing Israel of massacres.”

“The Network vehemently rejects the allegations presented by Israeli authorities suggesting professional media standards have been violated,” Al Jazeera said in a statement. “It reaffirms its unwavering commitment to the values embodied by its Code of Ethics.”

Israel’s move can heighten the Jewish state’s tensions with Qatar, which funds Al Jazeera, especially at a time when the Gulf country is playing a key role in mediating efforts to stop the war in Gaza. 

Tim Dawson, the deputy general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, told Al Jazeera Israel’s decision was a “retrograde and ridiculous decision.”

“Closing down media, closing down television stations is a sort of thing that despots do,” he said.