The Arab Spring has seen governments overthrown, mass movements formed and dissolved, and geopolitical calculations upended for groups and countries spanning Iran-backed terror groups all the way to NATO countries.

It’s also seen a kind of dropping of pretenses for Al Jazeera, the Qatari-owned TV station that has often been accused of backing Islamist extremism regionally and globally.

Dozens of the station’s employees resigned in July over what they insisted was Qatari-directed station support for the Muslim Brotherhood. The army-backed government, which took power after the military deposed the country’s former president Mohammed Morsi, subsequently moved against the station.

A minor drama, which last week erupted in Al Jazeera’s West Bank Ramallah studio, is likely to deepen suspicions that Al Jazeera is providing a platform for extremists aligned among other things against peace efforts. Ibrahim Hamami, a virulently anti-Israel Islamist critic of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, called Yasser Arafat a traitor for being too pro-Israel.

Protests subsequently erupted outside the studio. Palestinians rioters accused Al Jazeera of being too pro-Israel – the exact term was “Zionist” – for letting an Islamist accuse Arafat of being too pro-Israel.

[Photo: Al Jazeera English / Wiki Commons]