Al Jazeera, a Qatar-owned stream, has unjustly incorporated itself into the Gaza battle story.
In January, two Al Jazeera investigators, Hamzah Dahdouh and Mustafa Thurayya, were , killed , in the battle. On Monday, the Jewish military , freed , Al Jazeera journalist in Gaza Ismail Al- Ghoul, days after arresting him during its renewed functions in the Al- Shifa health element.
In comparison to other major systems, Al Jazeera has a higher casualty rate during the Gaza conflict, which is a testament to the amount of resources it is putting into its policy.
But to what conclusion is that protection so aggressive? Next month, Israel , released , pictures from the computer of another Al Jazeera blogger, Muhamad Wishah, showing him supervising anti- tank weapon coaching with Hamas.
Even though Hamas was the one who massacred 1, 200 Israelis, Al Jazeera has switched to non-stop life policy of what it calls the” Israel hostility on Gaza” since the war started on October 7, Al Jazeera has switched to non-stop live coverage of the incident.
And while Al Jazeera claims honesty, its speech gives away its discrimination – such as describing Arab or Palestinian fatalities as “martyrs who were elevated” to heaven, while calling Jewish casualties only “killed”. The term “martyr” is not used in any other significant Muslim system.
For a route funded by a big non- NATO US ally, Qatar, Al Jazeera operates like the info- no tool of a state that is at war with the US – prompting Secretary of State Antony Blinken to , ask , his Qatari counterpart, on October 25, to tone down the channel’s extreme language, to no avail.
The style guide for Israel on Al Jazeera conflicts with international law. The channel uses the term” settlement” to describe all Israeli towns, not only those in the disputed territories of 1967. It describes as “occupation” Israeli presence anywhere on the land, even inside the 1948 territory that is globally recognized as Israeli.
Without checking for accuracy, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have been broadcasting footage from the Qatari channel that shows images of Israeli tanks or infantry in Gaza. The Israeli target is then shown as a red triangle, and Palestinians fire on it in response. The video typically pauses just before the target is hit. Despite all the alleged strikes, images of Israeli tanks that have been burned or destroyed have not yet appeared.
Fayez Al-Duwairi, a retired Jordanian army general, spends hours each day staring at Gaza’s map, explaining Hamas footage, and always coming to the conclusion that the Gazan militants have been abusing Israel.
Duwairi’s failed predictions, including of Hamas repelling a ground Israeli invasion, have been piling up, but have not stopped him from becoming an Arab celebrity, so much so that when one Hamas fighter was video recording an attack on Israeli troops, the fighter was heard , shouting , “analyze this, O Duwairi”! The phrase was a daily topic on Arab social media for days.
Like Qatar and Al Jazeera, Duwairi became the news. When he heard Hamas calling his name, Al Jazeera questioned him about his feelings. ” That call was a medal on my chest”, the former general , said. ” If I did n’t feel pride then, it’d have meant that I had given up on my pan- Arab nationalism” . ,
Al Jazeera, which first appeared as an Arabic satellite channel in 1996, quickly gained praise for its impartial reporting and professionalism, habits that it abruptly abandoned. Seeing in its channel a potent soft power tool, Doha has increased multifold Al Jazeera’s budget, now , estimated , at over US$ 1 billion a year, and added an English channel and a social media stream AJ .
Long before the ongoing war in Gaza, Al Jazeera had been offering misinformation consistently.
For example, last Ramadan, when religious fervor was running high, Al Jazeera claimed that Israel , prohibited Palestinians from praying at Al- Aqsa in Jerusalem, even when Palestinians reported that the number of those who prayed there reached a quarter of a million, at a shrine whose maximum , capacity , is supposed to be 180, 000.  ,  ,
The channel took pride, for another example, in being the first to , claim , that Israel had bombed al- Ahli hospital, killing hundreds of Palestinians who were taking refuge in the facility’s yard.
Al Jazeera moved on without ever acknowledging or regretting its error, instead of doubling down on its claim that it was Israel that was  , deluding , the world about the attack. As Western intelligence and media began to show that the hit was the result of errant Palestinian fire, and that the number of deaths was a fraction of what was reported,
Its business is Al Jazeera’s deception of its audience through false information and sensational broadcasts. The US government is concerned, however, when Al Jazeera , skirts , American laws that force foreign entities to file under the Foreign Agent Registration Act ( FARA ).
Washington has already ordered Russia Today’s operation and staff to file for FARA. Al Jazeera fought back, claiming that it resembled the BBC, an independent organization that receives a government grant.
But the BBC’s , budget , – including the salaries of all of its staff — is posted publicly online. The BBC and the British government have a clear firewall, too.
Al Jazeera, meanwhile, conceals its enormous budget and the extent to which Doha influences its editorial policy. For one thing, we know that Al Jazeera, whose harsh criticism does not spare governments, has never criticized Qatar. On the contrary, Al Jazeera amplifies any , gratitude, no matter how small, shown by anyone toward Qatar.
Al Jazeera is not interested in news sources. It aims to shape the narrative in a way that suits Doha’s goals. And even though Qatar is a US ally, Al Jazeera’s editorial policy suggests otherwise. Doha would either stop using its channel’s inflammatory and instigative rhetoric or start looking for new allies.
Hussain Abdul-Hussain is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies ( FDD), a nonpartisan research institute with a focus on foreign policy and national security. Follow Hussain on X , @hahussain