Police halted the broadcast of several foreign news agencies reporting from missile impact sites this morning.
The agencies’ footage — which police say revealed “precise locations” — was apparently being used by the Al Jazeera news network, banned in Israel since last summer.
A spokesman for police says patrol units were dispatched to take action “against news agencies utilized by Al Jazeera to transmit unauthorized and unlawful content.”
In footage of the police action shared by the National Security Ministry, an officer is seen ordering a cameraman to hand over his recording device.
The cameraman resists and can be heard saying to him in Hebrew: “They are seeing you on CNN, seeing you on BBC, seeing you all over the world, so calm down for a second.” The cameraman requests that the officer talk to the police spokesman, and adds that he can’t help it if other channels are using his broadcast.
The decision was made “in accordance with the policy of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and under the directive of Police Commissioner Danny Levy,” says a police spokesman.
Earlier this week, police raided the offices of foreign TV crews after they broadcast missile impacts in the Haifa area, where barrages had targeted sensitive facilities.
Ben Gvir has pledged to crack down on foreign media broadcasting the locations of missile impacts.
“Broadcasts that show exactly where the missiles land on the State of Israel are a danger to state security,” he said from a missile impact site in Petah Tikva on Tuesday. “I expect that anyone who does this be treated as someone who harms state security.”
Israeli authorities have sought to limit information on impact locations they argue can be used by Iran to better calibrate its missiles.
“Broadcasts that show exactly where the missiles land on the State of Israel are a danger to state security,” he said from a missile impact site in Petah Tikva on Tuesday.
???
Probably because it provides a battle damage assessment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bomb_damage_assessment
Bomb damage assessment (BDA), also known as battle damage assessment, is the practice of assessing damage inflicted on a target from a stand-off weapon, most typically a bomb or air launched missile. It is part of the larger discipline of combat assessment. Assessment is performed using many techniques including footage from in-weapon cameras, gun cameras, forces on the ground near the target, satellite imagery and follow-up visits to the target. Preventing information on battle damage reaching the enemy is a key objective of military censorship.
Sorry, I should have been more clear…
The article made it sound like he was broadcasting from a missile impact site, condemning those that broadcast those impact sites.
They also passed a law criminalising the filming of missile impacts.
Seems to be going well for them /s
According to Al Jazeera Ben Gvir also wants people to spy on and denounce neighbors listening to Al Jazeera:
Ben-Gvir: Anyone watching Al Jazeera should be reported to the police
Far-right Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir just gave a short statement to the media, which our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera Mubasher carried live a few minutes ago.
In it, he reiterated the government’s stance against allowing Al Jazeera to report from Israel, saying doing so would pose a “threat” to national security.
He also called for police action against those caught watching Al Jazeera in Israel.
“How dare you look at how heinous we are?!” - Israel
Well in this case they don’t want people to accurately report on Israeli sites being hit.
While i understand that in the context of military sites, this should not be relevant in the context of civilian sites. Unless Israel is using its civilian sites as human shields for its military…
Israeli policy is to not report missile hits so they can claim Iron Dome works 1000% perfectly.
