Israel acting to restrict Al-Jazeera. UPDATED: "Israel's frosty relationship with AJ is headed for a deep freeze"

Update (2/4): Dion Nissenbaum is reporting that Israel is considering declaring AJ a "hostile enemy." If effective, the result would be the removal of all AJ reporters from Israel. Question: would this also mean that AJ reporters would be out of Gaza, or would they be able to remain? If AJ's reporters remain in Gaza, won't this encourage one-sided coverage, given the difficulty that contacting Israeli officials will be? Seems like this move could only hurt Israel's image in the media.

The BBC is reporting that:

Israeli officials say they are taking measures to restrict the work of the Arabic television network, al-Jazeera, inside Israel. It follows a decision last month by al-Jazeera's owners, the state of Qatar, to cut trade ties with Israel. The work visas of some al-Jazeera employees based in Israel will not be renewed, according to reports. Al-Jazeera's journalists will have limited access to Israeli news conferences and briefings.

Yet another example of the line between politics and journalism being blurred. It is unclear of the restrictions will be applied only to the Arabic side of AJ, or the English branch as well.