The Israeli parliament on Monday approved a bill granting top ministers the power to prohibit the broadcasting of Al Jazeera news channel in Israel—a move Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to pursue.
The law, passed by a vote of 70 to 10, enables the ban of foreign channel broadcasts and permits the closure of their offices within Israel.
The law empowers the prime minister and the minister of communications to declare international networks functioning in Israel to be in danger of closing and seizing their equipment, if they are deemed to be posing “an actual harm to the state’s security.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously vowed to “immediately act to close Al Jazeera” after the law is passed.