AP bureau chief in Jerusalem: Many in Israeli government ‘trying to shut people up’

The Jerusalem bureau chief for Associated Press has accused “many people” in the Israeli government of “trying to shut people up” as part of an attack on freedom of expression.

Josef Federman, who is also chair of the Foreign Press Association in Israel, made the remarks Thursday at a state-sponsored event about freedom of speech.

The previous day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered the Press Office to exclude Al Jazeera’s Jerusalem bureau chief Walid Al-Omari from proceedings, the latest episode in a wider attack on the Qatari network and its staff by Israeli officials.

Responding to these developments, Federman said he would defend Al Jazeera’s “right to report whatever they want”, telling the audience that “what it boils down to is that Israel doesn’t like what they say – and from what I see going on in this country right now, this is part of a broader trend”.

Read: Is Israel really a safe haven for journalists?

“There are many people in the government who are trying to stop things they don’t like, and they do it by just trying to shut people up”, he continued, and, according to Haaretz, cited “as examples the government’s threats to cut funding to cultural institutions it sees as overstepping the boundaries of freedom of expression and Netanyahu’s recent attacks on the media”.

At the seminar, Israel’s Government Press Office head Nitzan Chen claimed that he had opposed Netanyahu’s decision to bar al-Omari from the meeting, but had no choice but to comply, since his office operates under the auspices of the Prime Minister’s Office.