Al Jazeera controversies and criticism crowed the station's Beirut bureau chief, hailing Kuntar as a "pan-Arab hero." On 13 March 2008, Israel announced a "boycott" of the Arabic broadcaster al-Jazeera, accusing it of bias particularly during coverage of the conflict in the Gaza Strip and of slanted coverage favoring Hamas. Ministers will refuse to do interviews and according to some reports, will deny visa applications from its staff. Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Majali Wahbe accused the Qatari-owned station of prioritizing/focusing exclusively on Palestinian suffering, and ignoring Israeli suffering. "We have seen that Al-Jazeera has become part of Hamas ... taking sides and cooperating with people
Al Jazeera English operations including its newsroom, studios and shows from Knightsbridge to its new space on floor 16 of The Shard. The last day of broadcasting from the Knightsbridge studios was September, 12th 2014. The space was officially opened on November 3, 2014, with the first Newshour broadcast on October 10, 2014. The new facility is capable of running an entire channel, independently of the Doha hub. In 2013 Al Jazeera Media Network began planning a new channel called "Al Jazeera UK". If launched, the British channel would broadcast for five hours during prime time as cut-in UK content aired on Al