An organization representing Swiss Jews on Monday welcomed the decision by two cellphone and media providers to remove Al Jazeera Arabic from their platforms, citing allegations that the Qatari network was promoting Hamas terrorism.
“It is positive that Sunrise and Swisscom are assuming responsibility and taking the Swiss Hamas ban very seriously,” Jonathan Kreutner, secretary-general of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities (SIG), told JNS.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday praised the move.
“Faced with concerns over Hamas propaganda, Swiss TV operators Swisscom and Sunrise removed Al Jazeera Arabic from their platforms. Hamas is banned in Switzerland. So is broadcasting on its behalf. An example that should be followed by others,” a spokesperson wrote on the ministry’s X account.
The Swiss government banned Hamas’s activities in the country on May 15 for a minimum of five years.
Israel banned Al Jazeera in May 2024, forcing the network to close its offices in the country. In September 2024, the Israel Defense Forces ordered the closure of the outlet’s Ramallah office, citing national security concerns.
Hamas has been directing Al Jazeera Arabic’s coverage of Gaza for years, according to documents Israel captured in the Strip in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel.
One 2022 document instructed Al Jazeera to avoid using the term “massacre” following an Islamic Jihad rocket strike that killed Palestinian civilians in Jabaliya. “The events were caused by attacks by the occupation,” Hamas told the network, according to the document.
A 2023 document revealed that Hamas had established an “Al Jazeera hotline,” a secure communication line enabling direct coordination between the terror group’s operations center and the network’s offices in Doha, Qatar.
The document indicated that the line was intended for use in emergencies, allowing Hamas to control how its military wing was covered, including real-time instructions on what to broadcast, what to conceal and which terms to use, in line with the organization’s interests on the ground.
