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 Türk 2014, Al Jazeera Turk`s website launched with news content. The move made Al Jazeera Turk the first 24-hour news operation to go digital before broadcast. Like how the Al Jazeera English and Al Jazeera Balkans websites are designed similarly the Al Jazeera Turk site was designed similar to the Al Jazeera America site. Also like its English, Arabic and Balkans counterparts the channel had its own digital Magazine. The channel was under construction with plans to launch towards the end of 2014. Construction and indoor works were underway at the upcoming channel’s building in Topkapı, İstanbul. The channel claimed its