The decision came after the PA closed Al Jazeera's office in the West Bank, temporarily suspending its operations.
The Ramallah Magistrate's Court in the West Bank has ordered several Al Jazeera websites to be shut down for four months, a court document shows – the latest ban by the Palestinian Authority (PA) on the network.
In a letter published on Sunday, the Attorney General's office asked the Palestinian Ministry of Communications to implement the court's decision to shut down aljazeera.net, aljazeera.net/live, aljazeera360.com and global.ajplus.net
The order called on all companies holding radio and satellite broadcasting licenses to comply with the ruling “under penalty of accountability”.
According to the document, these websites published material that “threatens national security and creates criminal charges”.
The latest move came after The PA closed the office of Al Jazeera in the West Bank that was there last week, temporarily suspending its work – a decision that the network protested.
The PA committee of ministers, including the ministries of culture, interior and communications, justified the decision, saying that the network broadcasts “inciting material and reports that deceive and create conflict” in the country.
The network criticized the decision, calling it “an attempt to prevent the channel from reporting on the growing situation in the occupied territories” and adding that it was “consistent with (Israel's) actions against its workers”.
The closure was also criticized by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) which called for immediate changes, warning that Al Jazeera's coverage of inside Gaza and the West Bank was “important”.
According to experts and human rights activists, such decisions of the PA are on the one hand trying to suppress the opposition about his safety in the Jenin refugee camp.
The closure of Al Jazeera's website and broadcast came almost a month after the PA launched a crackdown on the Jenin Brigades – a coalition of armed groups affiliated with Palestinian groups such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Fatah, the ruling party. PA.
From the beginning of December, The PA besieged the Jenin camp and cut off water and electricity to many residents in an attempt to restore “law and order” across the West Bank.
However, his non-partisan approach in Jenin coincides with a major attack on freedom of expression, human rights activists and human rights groups told Al Jazeera.
Israel also targeted Al Jazeera's work in the West Bank. Last September, authorities raided Al Jazeera's office in Ramallah and close it.