The Palestinian Authority on Wednesday banned Al-Jazeera television from operating in its territory and threatened legal action over allegations it broadcast against President Mahmoud Abbas. According to 'The Telegraph',the Palestine information ministry said the Qatar-based Arabic news channel had spread falsehoods and incited viewers against the authorities that run the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The ministry said allegations carried on Al-Jazeera on Tuesday and attributed to a senior figure in Abbas's Fatah party,Farouq al-Qadoumi,were untrue. The channel quoted Qadoumi as saying Abbas conspired with Israel to kill his predecessor Yasser Arafat in 2003. Arafat died in a Paris hospital in 2004 of an undisclosed ailment. "Al-Jazeera television has been devoting significant segments of its broadcasts to incitement against the Palestine Liberation Organisation and the Palestinian National Authority," the ministry said in a statement. "Despite our repeated calls (on Al-Jazeera) to remain objective when it covers Palestinian affairs and to voice a balanced position regarding the internal Palestinian situation,the channel is still inciting," it said. In a report on the ban,an Al-Jazeera presenter said the channel "expressed its astonishment about this decision by the Palestinian Authority and said it will issue a statement to answer the accusations of the Palestinian Ministry of Information".
