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Following the court decision, the right-wing station went off the air until further notice, but its broadcasts and reporting will continue on the Internet.
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| By Ellis Shuman October 21, 2003 |
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Ten managers, directors and broadcasters of Arutz-7, the right-wing pirate radio station, were convicted by a Jerusalem court on Monday of illegal broadcasting. Following the court decision, Arutz-7 went off the air until further notice, but its broadcasts and reporting will continue on the Internet. The court ruling came one day after the government lent its support to a proposed law that would fine advertisers on pirate radio stations.
In a case that had been pending for five years, the court ruled that Arutz-7's operators had transmitted from a boat within Israeli territorial waters and from locations in the West Bank without the required government permits during the years 1995-1998. The court also convicted station director Ya'acov Katz (Ketzaleh) on two counts of perjury after it was proven "beyond a shadow of a doubt" that he gave false testimony in affidavits stating that the station broadcast from a ship outside Israel's territorial waters.
Also convicted by the court were station directors Yoel Tzur and Rabbi Zalman Baruch Melamed; Shulamit Melamed, the station's program director; Haggai Segal, head of the Arutz-7 news department; broadcasters Adir Zik, Gideon Sharon, and David Shapira; Yair Meir, a station engineer; and Shaul Avni, the captain of Hazvi, the boat on which the transmissions were made. The maximum sentence for the convictions is three years' imprisonment and a 3 million shekel fine; the charges of perjury carry a maximum sentence of seven years' imprisonment.
After the verdict was announced, Tzur said that the first stage was to study the ruling. He vowed to "make every effort to continue Arutz-7's broadcasts."
But at 5 p.m. Monday afternoon, Arutz-7's broadcasts, heard in Israel on FM 98.7 and AM 1539, went off the air "until further notice."
In an announcement to its audience, Arutz-7 said, "To the precious and loyal listening public of Arutz-7, may G-d bless you from Zion. For some 15 years, Arutz-7 has broadcast Torah lessons and love of the People and the Land, with the participation of the leaders of Israel. The broadcasts accompanied and aided in the development of Torah in Israel and settlement of the Land. Following the decision of the Likud Government of yesterday to prevent advertising on non-licensed stations, and following today's court decision, the management of Arutz-7 has decided to stop all broadcasts on the radio... The broadcasts will continue as usual on the Internet and by phone - 057-777-777 [from abroad: +972-57-777-777]."
Segal said the decision to stop the broadcasts was final, unless the Knesset passed a special law to permit the station to continue to operate. "I'm not optimistic that a such law will be passed," Segal said. "If it isn't, we're done. We've reached the end of the road."
MK Eitan Cabel (Labor), who filed the original complaint against the station with the police and the Attorney-General's Office, said he was pleased that "justice was brought to light."
Right-wing Knesset members said the court decision had in effect "shut the mouthpiece" of the country's settler population. "We will not sit back and allow the silencing of an entire public sector," said MK Zvi Hendel (National Religious Party). "The court has decided to punish hundreds of thousands of listeners... The hounding of Arutz-7 by the left-wing State Prosecution will not succeed. The present right-wing government must make an immediate decision to allow free broadcasts, as in the rest of the world."
In February 1999, the Knesset passed a law formally licensing Arutz-7. On March 26, 2002, the High Court of Justice deemed the Knesset law null and void. It ruled that the special Arutz-7 law harmed the country's "rule of law" as well as the "freedom of occupation" of potential competitors.
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