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Izhar Ashdot Photo by Daniel Tchetchik


Izhar Ashdot's song 'A Matter of Habit' was broadcast several times on the IDF's Army Radio station despite being critical of the role the army plays in the occupied territories.

By Emilie Grunzweig for Haaretz

Israel's Army Radio chief, Yaron Dekel, cancelled a special broadcast of a new song released by musician Izhar Ashdot as the song, entitled 'A Matter of Habit,' is demeaning to IDF soldiers and according to Dekel, should not receive airtime on the IDF's radio station.

Among the song's lyrics, written by Alona Kimhi, are the lines "they are not men, nor women / They are mere objects, mere shadows / To learn to kill / It is a matter of habit … To learn cruelty / Is a matter of momentum / It starts small / And then it comes."

According to Ashdot, the song was written following Kimhi's experiences on tours led by "Breaking the Silence," an organization comprised of IDF veterans, who served at the start of the Second Intifada or alter, and have taken upon themselves the task of exposing the Israeli public to the reality of everyday life in the West Bank.

Ashdot appeared on the military radio station's program "Jam" with Yoav Kotner and preformed a number of songs from his new album without performing the song. The song, however, was played on the station several times before the special program, resulting in a number of complaints, some by IDF soldiers, over the song's contents.

The radio station announced that "Due to the song's contents, which debase IDF soldiers, the station commander decided that there is no room on Army Radio to publicly celebrate a song that denigrates and denounces those that have sacrificed their life for the defense of the country."

The statement continued, "the artist Izhar Ashdot is held in high esteem by Army Radio. In this specific case however, we believe with the artistic leeway afforded to artists by this station, Army Radio, as a station of soldiers, where many soldiers perform their military serve, should avoid celebrating a song that demonizes those soldiers."

"Today at about 1 P.M., with the band already at the radio studio tuning the instruments, we were contacted by the station and asked not to perform his album's title song ‘A Matter of Habit’ during the program, despite the fact that the song had already aired on the station and was even preformed live on another of the station's programs," a statement made on behalf of Ashdot read.

Ashdot's statement went on to attack the press release made by the station "The release of the statement and the announcement that it represents the position of Army Radio negates the possibility of holding a fair and balanced discussion on the song and its contents. I am worried by the fact that in a democratic country a media outlet bans a song."