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Al Jazeera Must Register as a Foreign Agent of Qatar
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Qatari Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani enter a hall for a joint news conference, in Tehran, Iran, July 6, 2022. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Standing in a Gaza hospital this month, an elderly man with a bandaged arm told an Al Jazeera reporter a simple fact: “As for the resistance [Hamas], they come and hide among the people.” The man added: “They can go to hell and hide there.” The reporter promptly turned his back on the man and changed the subject.
Al Jazeera presents itself as a fully professional news-gathering organization. It says its mission is to provide “accurate, in-depth and compelling content that upholds the value of truth.” In practice, the network toes the line of its patron, the state of Qatar.
Qatar sponsors Hamas politically and financially, so it’s hardly surprising that an Al Jazeera correspondent would shut down an interview when it started to reflect poorly on Hamas. Indeed, Al Jazeera’s reporting after October 7 was incendiary enough that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reportedly told the Qatari prime minister to “turn down the volume on Al Jazeera’s coverage” of the war in Gaza, because he knows the country has the power to do so.
The Qatari royal family established Al Jazeera in 1996. Today, the network operates across the globe in Arabic, English, and other languages. Qatar speaks through the network to audiences worldwide, but Al Jazeera does not dare question the autocratic rule of Qatar’s royal family.
The absence of scrutiny extends to the royal family’s relationships with a range of terrorist organizations. Hamas maintains a political office in Doha and receives over $100 million from Qatar every year. The leaders of Hamas live a life of luxury in Doha, as they rule over an impoverished population in the Gaza Strip.
Qatar also has ties to Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, ISIS, the Muslim Brotherhood, and, reportedly, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
If Doha sponsors the extremists, Al Jazeera amplifies their voices. Notably, the late Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, hosted a popular show on Al Jazeera through which he legitimized suicide bombings against Israelis.
Al Jazeera English pulled an anchor off air in 2013 after she failed to display sufficient sympathy for the Muslim Brotherhood.
As Hamas slaughtered Israeli civilians on October 7, the group’s Doha-based political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, appeared on Al Jazeera to publicly congratulate the terrorists for their “great triumph,” and recruit fighters “to join this battle in any way they can.”
In October, Israel’s communications minister told Israel’s Army Radio that Al Jazeera is “a propaganda mouthpiece” of Hamas. This was hardly the first time such an assessment has been made. But in an increasingly hostile media environment (one that forces Israel to screen footage of Hamas’ massacre to prove it actually happened), more must be done.
Al Jazeera continues to defy US law by failing to register with the Department of Justice (DOJ) as a foreign agent.
DOJ ordered Al Jazeera+, an arm of Al Jazeera based in the United States, to register as an agent of Qatar in 2020. “Despite assertions of editorial independence and freedom of expression,” DOJ’s Chief of Counterintelligence and Export Control noted, “Al Jazeera Media Network and its affiliates are controlled and funded by the Government of Qatar.”
In 2021, a group of senators sent a letter to US Attorney General Merrick Garland claiming Al Jazeera+ had “willfully ignored DOJ’s mandate” and imploring the DOJ “to explain what, if any, steps it has taken to enforce the law.”
Al Jazeera+ has yet to register as a foreign agent. In February, lawmakers pressed Congressional leadership to suspend the Al Jazeera Media Network’s Capitol Hill press credentials “until the State of Qatar and its propaganda arm agree to adhere to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and other U.S. laws.”
Al Jazeera’s defiance of the law is even more troubling given its history of clandestine activity in United States. The state-controlled network conducted a months-long spy operation in 2018, recording individuals without their consent, to produce a documentary about pro-Israel organizations in Washington in an attempt to delegitimize them. The series was cancelled under pressure, but was eventually leaked online.
Secretary Blinken told Doha last month that “there can be no more business as usual with Hamas.” If that’s true, then the Biden administration must ensure Al Jazeera fully complies with US law by registering as a foreign agent.
Natalie Ecanow is a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a non-partisan research institute in Washington, D.C., focusing on national security and foreign policy. Follow FDD on X @FDD.
The post Al Jazeera Must Register as a Foreign Agent of Qatar first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.