Description

Photo:
IDF soldiers raid the Al-Hurria radio station, November 2, 2015.Screen grab from Al-Huriya Website

Scenes at Al-Hurria radio statioin, MaanImages
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by ARON HELLER for Associated Press.
Nov. 3, 2015 11:19 AM EST

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military raided a Palestinian radio station in the West Bank on Tuesday and confiscated equipment it said was being used to broadcast calls to attack Israelis.

The military said it shut down the Al Hurria radio station in the city of Hebron overnight, accusing it of inciting violence.

Israel says the current spate of violence that started in mid-September has been set off by a Palestinian campaign of lies and incitement surrounding a sensitive Jerusalem holy site. The Palestinians counter by saying it is a result of frustration from nearly a half-century of occupation.

Eleven Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks, mostly stabbings. Sixty-nine Palestinians have died by Israeli fire, including 43 who Israel says were involved in attacks or attempted attacks.

The violence shows no signs of abating. On Monday, a Palestinian stabbed and seriously wounded a 70-year-old man in central Israel just hours after another Palestinian knifed several people, including an 80-year-old woman, in a stabbing spree near Tel Aviv.

Hebron, the largest West Bank city, has been a particular flashpoint. Several hundred Jewish settlers live in fortified enclaves in the city, amid tens of thousands of Palestinians.

The military says over the past month Palestinians have carried out 29 attacks in the city, including 22 stabbings, four vehicular assaults and three shooting attacks.

It says the Al Hurria station has been encouraging stabbing attacks and glorifying the attackers.

The station's director, Ayman Qawasmeh, said Israel troops raided the station after 2 a.m., destroyed equipment and confiscated transmitters.

"This is a clear violent aggression on the Palestinian media," he said. "We didn't incite, we just reported the Israeli daily crimes against our people in Hebron. They want to silence our voice."

The violence has been fueled by rumors among Palestinians that Israel was plotting to take over the sensitive Jerusalem holy site sacred to both Jews and Muslims.

Israel has adamantly denied it is changing the delicate status quo that governs the site, but Palestinians point to an increase in visits by extremist Jews who call for a greater Jewish presence there, as well as hard-line government ministers who support their cause. Under a longstanding arrangement, Jews are allowed to visit the site but cannot pray there.

Israel's internal security service Shin Bet said Tuesday it slapped a restraining order on an extremist Jewish activist, banning him from Jerusalem for six months because of his "involvement in activities that encourage provocations" at the holy site.

The Shin Bet identified the man as Dov Morel, who Israeli media said was active in a group calling for Jewish prayer rights the Jerusalem site.

Israel has previously banned another Jewish activist from the holy site and during the current round of violence, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu barred lawmakers from visiting the site. But banning an Israeli from Jerusalem is a rare move that reflects Israel's attempts to lower tensions and stamp out the violence.

The Jerusalem hilltop compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, lies at the heart of recent tensions. The compound is Judaism's most sacred place, the site of the two Jewish biblical Temples. It is also revered by Muslims as the spot where the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven in a nighttime journey.
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by Gili Cohen and Jack Khoury for Haaretz
Nov 03, 2015 10:59 AM

The Israeli Defense Forces and its Civil Administration raided a radio station in the West Bank city of Hebron early Tuesday and ordered it shut down.

A statement issued by the IDF said Minbar Al-Hurriah 92.7 FM was closed for broadcasting incitement to violence. The army added that equipment was confiscated "with the aim of rendering the station inoperable.”

Officials in the defense establishment expect that the closure of the station, which it says has been encouraging the commission of terrorist attacks, could influence the rate at which attacks are being carried out in the Hebron area. Over the past month, 29 such attacks were committed in the region, army data show, including 22 stabbing attacks. Palestinian residents of Hebron have also been involved in attacks elsewhere – in Jerusalem, Beit Shemesh, Petah Tikva, Kiryat Gat, and on Monday in Rishon Letzion.

Ayman Qawasmi, the director of the station, Minbar al-Hurriah 92.7 FM, said a large army unit marched into the station's office in the Palestinian-controlled section of Hebron and seized equipment before handing the staff an order closing it for six months. "Israel says that the station is inciting to violence because we say youth are being executed," he told Voice of Palestine radio.

Witnesses said the soldiers came with an order that, in addition to directing that the station be shut down, prohibited entry into the building. The soldiers confiscated equipment and caused extensive property damage, witnesses said. The soldiers reportedly summoned two on-air radio staffers, Mahmoud Aqnibi and Mohammed Abidu, for questioning. The army shut down the radio station on two previous occasions, in 2002, the year in the station was established, and then again in 2008.

Israeli government officials had previously threatened to take legal action to shut down official Palestinian television and radio, which operate out of Ramallah, the de facto Palestinian capital, on grounds of incitement.

Israel has vowed to act against inflammatory rhetoric that calls for armed attacks against Israelis as part of efforts to purportedly "defend" the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
The army issued the following statement in connection with the raid on the Hebron station: “The IDF will continue to take steps using every legal means at its disposal against the attackers and those assisting them to provide security to the residents of the State of Israel. The operation confiscating the equipment and closing the station is a necessary step in eliminating the incitement the results of which have been seen on the ground over the past month.”
DPA contributed to this report.
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HEBRON (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces on Tuesday morning stormed the offices of a Palestinian radio station in Hebron, where they destroyed equipment and ordered the station's closure, in the latest violation of press freedoms in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Manbar al-Hurriyya (Freedom Tribune) radio station, which is reportedly affiliated with Fatah, wrote on its website that Israeli forces had destroyed equipment inside the offices and confiscated other equipment.

The soldiers then issued a military order notifying employees that the station was to be closed and its broadcast banned.

The Israeli army said in a statement that the station was shut down "as part of the ongoing battle against incitement."

It continued: "Forces confiscated broadcasting equipment in order to prevent the incitement which has caused a flare of violence in the region over recent weeks."

It accused the radio station of encouraging "stabbing attacks" and "violent riots," and reporting "false and malicious claims of security forces executing and kidnapping Palestinians in order to provoke violence."

The statement said that Israeli forces had shut down the station twice before, in 2002 and again in 2008.

The incident comes a day after a Palestinian press freedoms watchdog condemned more than 450 violations of media freedoms since the beginning of the year.

The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms, known as MADA, said in a statement that it "condemns the ongoing violence against Palestinian journalists by the Israeli Occupying Forces," including more than 100 violations in October alone.
It said that "continued impunity with lack of accountability" encouraged Israeli forces "to commit more crimes and assaults."
The watchdog said that while press violations had not reached last year's proportions, when 17 Palestinian journalists were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, violations had "witnessed an enormous escalation this year."

The group called for accountability, but also for "preventing censorship and persecution of journalists and activists regarding their opinions and comments on social media."