The Israeli government approves regulations allowing the closure of foreign television channels, claiming that they support the “enemy” during war. A Knesset committee approved a draft law imposing one year in prison on someone who “systematically consumes” resistance videos.

Today, Monday, the Israeli government took steps to confirm that it is following a policy of retaliatory collective punishment targeting Palestinian civilians, in light of the war it has been waging in the Gaza Strip for a month.

The Israeli Minister of Finance and Minister in the Ministry of Defense, Bezalel Smotrich, called on both his Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Minister of Defense, Yoav Galant, to prevent Palestinians in the occupied West Bank from picking olives.

In a letter he sent to them, Smotrich claimed that “cleared security zones (i.e. free of Palestinians) must be established around the settlements and roads, and Arabs must be prevented from entering them” to access their olive-cultivated lands.

He claimed that “the command of the central region of the Israeli army allows and even obligates the harvesting of olives, by allocating many forces to this mission. This is madness that I can never agree to. I will not agree to another blood being shed on my conscience due to the insistence on not absorbing the events of Bahjat Torah (attack). Hamas in the Gaza Strip on October 7) in Judea and Samaria as well.”

Smotrich demanded that the Mini-Ministerial Council for Political and Security Affairs (Cabinet) discuss, this week, the preparations of the occupation forces in the West Bank in detail, especially “the scenario of reversing the situation by the Palestinian Authority.”

In another step, the Israeli government approved, during a telephone referendum today, regulations that allow inspectors from the Ministry of Communications and the police to close foreign television channels, claiming that they support the “enemy” during the war.

In a third step, the Law and Constitution Committee in the Knesset today, Monday, approved a draft law imposing a one-year prison sentence on a person who “systematically consumes” video clips issued by the Hamas movement and the resistance factions, which include praise for the movement, solidarity with it, and encouragement of its operations, in preparation for voting on the draft. The law passed the second and third readings.

According to the draft law, “consuming publications spontaneously, innocently or for a legitimate purpose is not prohibited.”