Shimon Peres and Ehud Barak appeared on Al-Jazeera, breaking the Ministry of Foreign Affair’s boycott of the Qatar-based network. The Jerusalem Post elaborates:
Officials in Peres’s office responded that they were unaware of a decision to boycott Al-Jazeera. They said that Peres gave a “terrific” 40-minute interview Tuesday on the occasion of the start of Ramadan in which he outlined Israel’s positions on diplomatic issues and against Muslim extremism.
Foreign Ministry officials said that Barak’s interview on Monday was less of a problem, because it was with Al-Jazeera’s English network and not its more problematic Arabic channel. While the Government Press Office has repeatedly threatened both networks with sanctions, the Foreign Ministry and other government agencies have continued cooperating with the English network while often criticizing its reporting.
The government decided to boycott Al-Jazeera after the Qatar-based news service threw a fawning birthday bash for Samir Quntar.
