Israel is making the moves to shut down local operations of Al-Jazeera

Thomson ReutersAn employee walks inside an office of Qatar-based Al-Jazeera network in Jerusalem.

JERUSALEM - Israel plans to revoke press credentials of Al-Jazeera TV journalists, close their Jerusalem bureau and pull the Qatar-based station's broadcasts from local cable and satellite providers, Communications Minister Ayoub Kara said on Sunday.

Kara accused the station of "supporting terrorism" and said cable broadcasters had agreed to his proposal to take the station's Arabic and English channels off air. Closure of the station's office would require further legislation, he added.

Kara said it was "delusional" that other Arab states in the region had banned Al-Jazeera for these reasons, but Israel so far has not.

Al-Jazeera's local offices have been shut in Jordan and Saudi Arabia, and the channel and affiliate sites have been blocked in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain.

According to an article on Al-Jazeera, Rami Khouri from the American University in Beirut, said the plan was "very typical of regimes" in the region.

"Regimes that want to control power will almost always go after two targets - the media and the foreigners. Everybody goes after the media," he said.

The director of the London-based Ethical Journalism Network, Aidan White, labeled the decision an attack on press freedom.

"It is a shocking statement, and it completely undermines Israel's claims to be the only democracy in the region, because it gets to the heart of one of the most important institutions of democracy," he said. "This attack on Al Jazeera is really an attack on all critical independent journalism."