16 July 2009 / REUTERS, RAMALLAH
The Palestinian Authority banned Al-Jazeera television from operating in its territory on Wednesday and said it would take legal action over its broadcast of allegations against President Mahmoud Abbas.
The Information Ministry said in a statement the Qatar-based channel's Arabic service spread falsehoods and incited viewers against the authorities that run the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The ministry said allegations carried on Al-Jazeera on Tuesday and attributed to a senior figure in Abbas's Fatah party, Farouq al-Qadoumi, were untrue. The channel quoted Qadoumi as saying Abbas conspired with Israel to kill his predecessor Yasser Arafat in 2003. Arafat died in a Paris hospital in 2004 of an undisclosed ailment. "Al-Jazeera television has been devoting significant segments of its broadcasts to incitement against the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian National Authority," the ministry statement said.
