November 1998 and terminated the license given to its correspondents. This closure came after airing an episode of “The Opposite Direction” talk show on the Wadi Araba Agreement. In December 2001, Jordanian security forces detained the Network’s correspondent, Yasser Abu Hila- la, for 24 hours after he covered a demonstration in support of Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden in the city of Ma’an. The Jordanian security forc- es also arrested another Al Jazeera correspondent in Amman, Sawsan Abu Hamda, for interrogations. Kuwait: In June 1999, the Kuwaiti authorities shut down Al Ja- zeera’s office, on allegations that an Iraqi caller insulted the Emir of Kuwait on a live broadcast. In November 2002, Kuwait closed the Net- work’s office again, after the channel reported the northwestern part of the country was completely closed for U.S.-Kuwaiti military exercises. Palestine: In March 2001, the Palestinian Authority closed Al Ja- zeera’s Ramallah bureau, after the channel aired a promotion for a doc- umentary about the Lebanese civil war, which the Palestinian Authority said included an insult to the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. Israel: In August 2011, the Israeli occupation forces arrested jour- nalist Samer Allawi when he visited his family in Palestine. Mauritania : In August 2001, the Mauritanian authorities submit- ted an official request to Qatar to stop Al Jazeera’s broadcast to its cit- izens; a request that was ignored. In October of the same year, parlia- mentary elections were held and Al Jazeera became a focus of some of the campaigns with the government accusing it of ‘fomenting chaos’. Sudan : Because of Al Jazeera’s extensive coverage of the Darfur conflict that erupted in February 2003, it was subjected to several puni- tive measures, including: - In December 2003, security forces in Khartoum arrested Al Ja- zeera’s correspondent Islam Saleh, on charges of “broadcasting news containing false information and biased analysis aimed at harming Sudan’s reputation”. - In December 2004, the Sudanese authorities tried to suspend the Network’s license, and the security forces requested that, but the Press and Publication Council turned the request down. - In February 2004, Islam Saleh was accused of “defaming” Sudan
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