The European Commission suddenly woke up to the fact that Hamas-controlled Al Aqsa TV is broadcast by Eutelsat, headquartered in France.

The Commission requested the French authorities to take urgent steps to interrupt broadcasting as soon as possible.

Al Aqsa TV naturally presents the pirate attack against the Freedom Flotilla from a Gazan perspective. The Commission considers it an "incitement to hatred".

In 2003-06, Israel had rallied its network of information agents in Europe and in the United States to preclude Hezbollah television from going on the air before Israel’s scheduled attack against Lebanon. En French, a media campaign smeared Al-Manar accusing it of "anti-semitism". However, the accusation proved false and the criminal investigation was left without a case. Regardless, the French Council of State ultimately stepped in to ban Hezbollah television "disturbing public order".[1]

Thus, outside all judicial procedure, the European Commission has taken the administrative measure of adding a media blockade to the actual Gaza blockade.

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– [1] Al-Manar : comment Israël a étranglé la voix de la Résistance libanaise (Al-Manar: How Israel strangled the voice of the resistance), by Thierry Meyssan, Voltaire Network, 9 August 2006.