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Credit: Israeli army spokesperson Published by Maan News

HEBRON (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces raided and ransacked a Palestinian radio station early Wednesday morning in the town of Dura in the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron, detained five of the station’s employees, and ordered it to be closed for three months, amid a documented escalation of violations against media freedoms by Israeli forces in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Locals told Ma’an that Israeli forces raided al-Sanabel radio station, destroyed its contents, and confiscated transmission and broadcast equipment.

Israeli forces left a closure order on the door of the radio station.
Locals added that Israeli forces detained head of the radio station Ahmad al-Darawish, as well as radio employees Muhammad al-Sus, Nidal Amro, Muntaser Nassar, and Hamed al-Nammura after raiding their homes.

Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a statement in Arabic that Israeli forces, police, and civil administration authorities closed al-Sanabel upon a military order claiming that the radio station broadcast programs inciting against Israel.

Adraee added that the five detainees were transferred for interrogation.

News of the closure came after Palestinian press freedoms watchdog MADA released a report on Saturday saying Israeli violations against media freedoms in the occupied Palestinian territory increased by 17 percent during the first half of 2016.

MADA General Director Moussa Rimawi said in the semi-annual report that while the total number of violations by both Israeli and Palestinian authorities declined from 224 cases in the first half of 2015 to 198 in the first half of this year -- a rate of 12 percent -- Israeli violations continued to climb, as Palestinian authorities committed 41 percent less violations during the same period.

A total of 133 violations committed by Israel were recorded during the period.

The most common types of violations committed by Israel were physical attacks, arrests, confiscation of equipment, prevention of coverage, and detentions.

The report highlighted that Israeli authorities closed two media institutions -- Falastin al-Yawm and TransMedia Production Company -- after ransacking and confiscated equipment from their offices in March.
Meanwhile, some 23 journalists and media workers were detained between January and June of 2016.

The report also noted an escalation of the Israeli practice of detaining Palestinians for social media activity, with Israeli authorities alleging that a wave of unrest that swept the occupied Palestinian territory last October was encouraged largely by "incitement."

Palestinians have instead pointed chiefly to the frustration and despair brought on by Israel's nearly 50-year military occupation of the Palestinian territory and the absence of a political horizon.

MADA said in the report that they were “gravely concerned regarding all systematic attacks and violence against journalists and media workers by the Israeli occupation, and urges state members to do their utmost to prevent violence against journalists, to ensure accountability, and bring to justice perpetrators of crimes against media freedoms.”
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The Israeli army shuts down the Dura-based ‘A-Sanabel,’ claiming it incites against Israelis without so much as providing any evidence. Such is life under a military regime.

By Haggai Matar |Published September 1, 2016 for 972Mag

The Israeli army shut down Palestinian radio station A-Sanabel in the early hours of Wednesday morning, arresting five of employees and confiscating equipment. According to the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, the station was closed “due to inciting broadcasts.” However, the IDF Spokesperson could not provide examples or statistics on such incitement.

According to Israeli news site Ynet, A-Sanabel openly supported “harming Israelis,” praised violent attacks, backed campaigns for rebuilding demolished homes of Palestinian attackers, and “promoted participation in resistance marches.” That is, the reasons provided by “army sources” — without going into detail — include a strange mix of incitement to violence and calls for completely legitimate actions.

I had never heard of A-Sanabel before. I have no idea what kind of content they broadcast. It could very well be that they call for the murder of Jews. Perhaps. But it is also possible that they broadcast news and lifestyle shows, that they employ journalists who report on local corruption cases or broadcasters who promote positive, nonviolent actions such as protesting the occupation or repairing the damage that results from the army’s collective punishment.

The point is that we cannot know, since the army neither needs nor wants to provide details beyond a general statement on “inciting broadcasts.” The army does not need to give explanations about its actions to the station, the journalists who lost their jobs, or the listeners.

Last November, when the Shin Bet and the police shut down two newspapers belonging to the Islamic Movement in Israel (the stations were never accused to partaking in incitement, just ask the head of the Government Press Office Nitzan Chen), the Union of Journalists in Israel sent a leader to Prime Minister and Communications Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denouncing the closure. According to the union, even if the Islamic Movement’s stations did publish a certain text that includes incitement, “the way to deal with it is through criminal proceedings vis-a-vis the inciters — not through shutting down a media outlet and firing many journalists who did nothing wrong, and silencing a voice among the public discourse.”

The same goes for the journalists in Dura. It is unreasonable that the army can simply shut down a radio station without explaining itself. It is illogical that if two, three, or five journalists incited, that all the workers must pay the price. One cannot accept the fact that the words “incitement broadcasts” replace legal proceedings, in which the station has the opportunity to present its stance before such a dramatic decision is made.

But such is life under a military regime.

Let’s remember that over the past year, the IDF has similarly shut down a number of radio and televisions stations in the West Bank, and that five Palestinian journalists are currently in administrative detention, including Omar Nazzal, who was arrested on his way to an international journalism conference in April. Israel’s High Court recently upheld the army’s request to extend Nazzal’s detention by three months.

This article was first published in Hebrew on Local Call. Read it here.