Israel Returns Seized AP Equipment After US Pressure

Facts

• Hours after seizing a camera and broadcasting equipment belonging to the Associated Press (AP) on Tuesday — shutting down a live feed of the Gaza Strip — Israel reversed its decision.¹
• In confiscating the equipment, located in the Israeli city of Sderot near the Gaza border, Israeli officials accused the AP of violating a newly passed media law by providing images from the feed to Al Jazeera.²
• Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said the reversal came because 'the Ministry of Defense wishes to examine the matter of the broadcasts from these locations in Sderot regarding the risk to our forces.'³
• Adrienne Watson, a US National Security Council spokeswoman, told CNN that the White House and the State Department had asked Israel to reverse the action, 'which they have publicly committed to do.'¹
• Earlier in the month, the Israeli cabinet voted unanimously to shut down Qatar-based Al Jazeera's operations in Israel, citing the new law, which allows the Israeli government to ban foreign media organizations it deems to be a threat to national security.⁴

Sources: ¹CNN, ²The Associated Press, ³BBC News and ⁴Al Jazeera.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Israel National News. AP was broadcasting the movements of Israeli forces, thus putting these troops in danger. Nonetheless, the decision to seize the equipment has been reversed pending a fuller investigation from the Israeli Ministry of Defense.
• Narrative B, as provided by The Forward. Israeli officials made a wrong-headed decision. Such authoritarian actions — resembling moves by states like Russia or North Korea — only degrade the image of Israel in the eyes of the foreign media.

Predictions