‘Radio Free Israel’ shut down

Supporters of an alternative Israeli radio station especially popular among Jewish settlers who decry the country’s left-leaning media monopoly claim it has been shut down for political reasons.

Arutz-7, which broadcast from a ship outside Israeli territorial waters, was closed down after Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court ruled it was broadcasting illegally. The case came in response to a lawsuit by a member of the Knesset, Eitan Cabel of the Labor party.

A Jerusalem Post editorial, however, argued it was not broadcasting regulations, but politics that shut down the “financially viable, professionally capable, and exceptionally popular radio station” after 15 years on the air.

“This country urgently needs legislation to democratize the airwaves,” the Post said. “This is the case elsewhere in the free world. It’s time we live up to our liberal pretensions. A phenomenon like [the Fox News Channel] would be impossible here. Nothing, however, prevented a television network with a different ideological bent from giving itself an electronic media platform in America.”

Israel has a public interest in Arutz-7 staying on the air, asserted Paul Eidelberg, president of the Foundation for Constitutional Democracy, a non-profit American-Israeli group.

Eidelberg said Arutz-7 reached not only a significant Jewish audience not otherwise represented by the established media, but also people abroad “who are misled by their own anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist media.”

“The closure of this radio station is not only a blow against freedom of speech, but against Israel’s national interests,” he said. “No other radio program is more conducive to an enlightened and well-informed public.”

The Oct. 20 ruling, the culmination of four and a half year of litigation, convicted 10 directors, station managers and broadcasters of Arutz-7 of broadcasting without a license.

Arutz-7 Executive Director Yaakov Katz was convicted of issuing false affidavits about the distance of the ship from shore.

Katz argued the state prosecution operated under a double standard because it never indicted a left-leaning broadcaster, Abie Nathan, for broadcasting his programs from the sea.

But one week after Nathan decided to close his operation for health reasons, “all the troubles for Arutz-7 started,” Katz said.

Many from the political right reacted with anger, including the Yesha Council of Jewish Communities, which issued a statement contending the Arutz-7 convicts are termed “law breakers” only because the governments of Israel never allowed an “open skies” policy.

Arutz-7 management reportedly is lobbying among Knesset members for legislation to enable the station to resume broadcasting.

A Jewish settler whose statement was given to WorldNetDaily called Arutz Sheva the “one oasis of sanity on the airwaves.”

Janet Kasten Friedman said the Israeli press, both Hebrew and English, has been “fueled by Labor party ideologues and ‘intellectuals’ who repeat the great lie ‘land for peace’ like a mantra.”

“That makes us settlers, with the land of Israel stamped upon our name and our lives, ‘enemies of peace,'” she said.

Friedman said when her neighbor was killed by a terrorist, the state radio news report “didn’t call her an Israeli, a Jew, or a mother, she was called a settler; and that somehow, made her murder seem more justified in the eyes of certain ‘peace-loving’ people.”

She said Arutz-7, which she has dubbed “Radio Free Israel,” is a stark contrast from Israeli state radio.

“The music is in Hebrew; the speech is cultured, talking rather than yelling; the programs include many Bible and Jewish Law classes; the reporters time their questions with enough time for the interviewee to answer; and they interview people who are censored from state radio because they are right wing and/or religious,” she said. “They also interview left wing speakers, asking them the hard questions that state radio ignores.”

A study, she noted, indicated 80 percent of Israelis listen to Arutz-7.

Friedman said it was good for her morale to hear the station as she drove to work.

“I know it is irrational, but I felt less anxious about the prospect of getting shot by an Arab terrorist when I was able to hear Arutz-7 playing beautiful Hebrew music, Bible messages,” she said. “And even the news, however bad, sounded less horrific without the anti-Zionist slant.”