Israel PM bars Al-Jazeera journalist from free press seminar

JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has personally intervened to bar an Al-Jazeera journalist from a government conference on press freedoms that uses the pan-Arab broadcaster as a case study.

Bureau chief Walid Omary’s exclusion from attending a seminar titled “Limits of free expression: the dilemma between national security and freedom of the press — Al Jazeera as a case study,” comes a month after Netanyahu threatened to shut the Qatar-based outlet’s Israel offices.

The Government Press Office said Thursday that the prime minister is still pushing to strip Al-Jazeera reporters of their credentials and close their offices, but the move faces legal hurdles.

Last month the office threatened to revoke an Al-Jazeera reporter’s credentials after a 2016 interview surfaced in which he expressed support for Palestinian “resistance.”