\n Israeli authorities closed several Palestinian organisations in Jerusalem Wednesday, including a television channel, an Israeli minister and officials from the organisations said.\n<\/p>\n
\n The offices of Palestine TV -- a channel funded by the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority -- and an office of the Palestinian ministry of education were given orders to close for six months, staff members said on condition of anonymity.\n<\/p>\n
\n The director of the al-Araz production company that hosts Palestine TV was temporarily arrested, while a correspondent for the channel was summoned for questioning, these Palestinian sources said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Israel's Public Security minister Gilad Erdan confirmed the closure of offices used by Palestine TV and the education ministry.\n<\/p>\n
\n Israel captured east Jerusalem in a 1967 war and considers the entire city its undivided capital.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Palestinians consider the eastern part of the city the capital of their own future state.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"I will continue to pursue a firm policy against any attempt by the Palestinian Authority to violate our sovereignty in the capital,\" Erdan said in a statement seeking to justify the closures.\n<\/p>\n
\n He accused Palestine TV of producing anti-Israeli content in which the country is presented as \"responsible for war crimes and ethnic cleansing.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n The Palestinians condemned the closures.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"This is a continuation of the Israeli government's campaign against everything Palestinian in occupied Jerusalem,\" senior official Hanan Ashrawi said.\n<\/p>\n
\n MADA, a Palestinian organisation that defends freedom of expression, said the closures were \"part of Israel's efforts to silence the media and prevent the Palestinian story from spreading, through a series of repressions against the media and journalists.\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Israeli authorities closed several Palestinian organisations in Jerusalem Wednesday, including a television channel, an Israeli minister and officials from the organisations said. The offices of Palestine TV -- a channel funded by the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority -- and an office of the Palestinian ministry of education were given orders to close for six months, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-42997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n