Tuesday's Report December 28, 1999 - Tevet 19, 5760
Arutz Sheva News Service  <http://www.arutzsheva.org>

Hundreds of policemen stormed Arutz-7's offices and studios in Beit El at 9:30 this morning, in an attempt to shut down the broadcasts and confiscate the station's equipment. For over two hours, the police wrenched out soundboard consoles, computers, and other equipment, leaving extensive damage in their wake. They deposited these at the front entrance to the station, but did not attempt to transfer them to their waiting vans, as close to 1,000 residents of Beit El and other communities had gathered on the narrow street outside. The crowd, including many dozens of students of the nearby schools and yeshivot, intermittently sang, danced, and shouted "Police State!"

Arutz-7 technicians continue to work intensively to appraise and repair the damage caused to doors, computers, broadcast consoles, and wiring. All of the internet department's computers were operating within 4-5 hours after the raid, and the live internet broadcast of Arutz-7 was back on the air by 1 PM. The police were unable, despite repeated attempts, to break down the doors of one of the station's floors, containing a make-shift studio. Regular broadcasts continue from that studio; of the four damaged ones, highest priority will be given to repairing the Russian-language studio. During the course of the raid, Internet Director Baruch Gordon was lightly injured, requiring eight stitches in his hand, and student Aharon Amram of N'vei Tzuf had his hand broken.

Communications Ministry representative Chanan Golan, who was present during the police action today, told Arutz-7 broadcasters that the raid was initiated not by his office, but by the State Prosecution and the Attorney-General. Jerusalem Magistrates Court Justice Rafael Yaakobi signed the court order, after approving the State Prosecution's request for the warrant. When the police showed the search-and-confiscation court orders this morning, Arutz-7 management explained that these were based on false information, and that the Knesset had passed legislation almost a year ago permitting the station to broadcast.

Some two hours after the raid began, Samaria and Judea Police District Commander Yitzchak Aharonovitch arrived on the scene. After meeting with Rabbi Zalman Baruch Melamed - the station's Chairman of the Board and Rosh Yeshivat Beit El - Aharonovitch announced the sudden end of the police operation. At approximately 11:45 AM, Rabbi Melamed used a megaphone to inform the crowd gathered outside, "The police are trying to do their work honorably, but we have a problem with the Communications Ministry. We have come to an agreement, and the equipment is all staying here. Please permit the policemen to leave here with honor."

Yaakov (Ketzaleh) Katz, speaking on Arutz-7's newsmagazine today, said:

"Police Commander Aharonovitch is a smart man, and after a short time he realized that he was sorely misled. He saw that there are no transmitters here - even though we are allowed to have them here and use them - but he found nothing of the sort...

"I think that what happened here today is a mark of shame for Prime Minister Barak and for Public Security Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami, who claims to be a man of democracy - but what happened here was not democracy, but dictatorship, pure and simple... In the end, with the help of G-d, they finally left, and apologized, and it was agreed that they would say that they had succeeded in stopping the broadcasts - even though the broadcasts continued throughout, because we simply phoned over to the ship. Their claim that we are an illegal station is simply not true, especially after the passing of the Arutz-7 law in the Knesset, and that's why Beilin and Communications Ministry officials are making intense efforts to pass a different law..."

Ketzaleh announced that following the tremendous financial damages caused the station by the police violence, Arutz-7 will hold a marathon fund-raising broadcast this coming Thursday and Friday. Outpourings of support, via phone calls, faxes, and e-mails, have already been received at Arutz-7.

An excerpt from Aharonovitch's hastily-called press conference:

"The warrant was issued at the request of the Communications Ministry, and we were simply carrying out this order. We have fulfilled our mission of stopping the station's broadcasts, and we are therefore leaving."

Reporter: "But listen, you can hear the broadcasts on the radio right now - the antennas are not here, they are on the ship. Arutz-7 is still broadcasting."

Aharonovitch: "Our mission was to stop the broadcasts here in Beit El. If they have other channels, this is not my problem." [The afternoon newsmagazine was broadcast from Beit El as usual, from the lone operative make-shift studio, at 1 PM.]

Veteran Arutz-7 broadcaster Adir Zik spoke to the hundreds of Beit El residents and students who came to show their support of the station this morning. After a rousing round of his show's theme song, "You Won't Defeat Me So Quickly," the crowd settled down to hear his speech. Excerpts:

"When I used to remark that the State of Israel is turning into a Bolshevik state, I was called 'radical and extreme...' - but here we plainly see that with a court order one morning, the police can just come in and raid Arutz-7. Make no mistake about it: This is a struggle for the future of this land! They are simply trying to shut our mouths!... Truth has tremendous strength, and try as they might, they cannot vanquish our faith. The age of internet and instant communications has arrived, and Arutz-7's Kobi Sela has just broadcast a news report [via] the ship in the middle of the Mediterranean [in the midst of the police attempts to shut down the station]... Don't think for a moment that this is a legal issue. It's intimately connected to the political goings-on at present. They are simply trying to shut us up." Zik later said, "Arutz-7 has been responsible for a revolution in its media message and in its success at disseminating Torah in Israel and throughout the world. It is part of a wider society that sends its daughters to Sherut Leumi (National Service) and its sons to the top IDF combat units, of people who have been able to live a completely observant life while fully participating in modern society. This is the deeper level of the conflict: Because of the high quality of Arutz-7's news and other programming, because we insist on fully participating in the society - this has the establishment, the media, and the political establishment eating its heart out."

Reporters from Israeli television stations were at the scene. They protested the fact that they were not allowed to enter the building, and a Channel Two reporter said, "I access Arutz-7's internet site every day for scoops. It's important to make this information and these pictures available to the public, to see what the police came and did here!"

Deputy Minister of Education Sha'ul Yahalom said that there is no iota of truth to the police allegations that Arutz-7's broadcasts ever disturbed airport radio transmissions. Yahalom, speaking as a former Minister of Transportation, was reacting to statements by Police Investigations Chief Supt. Yossi Sitbon, who sraid was carried out because of such disturbances.

MK Rabbi Benny Elon (National Union), a resident of Beit El, who was also on the scene together with party colleague and leading Arutz-7 proponent MK Tzvi Hendel, said, "The truth is that I think the police were led astray by Chanan Golan of the Communications Ministry and Attorney-General Elyakim Rubenstein, who have an obsession [with Arutz-7]."

MK Rabbi Chaim Druckman (NRP) said, "The police raid on Arutz-7 is an anti-democratic scandal, an attempt to shut the mouths of the nationalist camp, the likes of which is only seen in the darkest regimes." He recommended that his party, which reached a budget agreement with the government only two days ago, vote against the budget in protest of the raid. Other NRP Knesset Members said that the raid was an attempt to silence those who object to a withdrawal from the Golan Heights.

MK Uzi Landau (Likud): "This raid was a manifestation of State Prosecution violence." MK David Azulai (Shas): "This is a leftist government that will do anything to shut mouths."

The Yesha Council announced that the Ehud Barak government is defiling the rule of law via the shutting of its political opponents' mouth. Professors for a Strong Israel called upon the government to cease its anti-democratic actions.

Atty. Mordechai Haller: "There is a general principle that when a legislature legalizes a certain behavior, all legal prosecution against this behavior is halted, and new proceedings against it are certainly not begun. The Attorney-General simply decides that it is not in the public interest to prosecute these matters... In this case, the legislature has passed a law legalizing Arutz-7; the law has not gone into effect yet, though, such that this is a classic case in which the Attorney-General would normally exercise his discretion not to prosecute... All the above concerns the radio. But the internet department has absolutely nothing to do with this. The publication of internet news is no different than any other completely legal behavior by Arutz-7 staff, such as preparing a cup of coffee. If an Arutz-7 employee prepares a cup of coffee, the police cannot come and arrest him - just like they cannot do so for the equally-innocent act of sending news over the internet... If a judge gave a ruling to confiscate all the equipment in a building used for allegedly illegal broadcasts, when the police knew perfectly well that some of the equipment is not used for broadcasts at all, then that order should never have been given... I think it's shocking that a judge would give an order that was so sweeping... I think the police probably misled the judge in that they did not give him the full picture..."

Yisrael Medad, head of Israel's Media Watch: "I think that this raid was a very foolish move that puts Mr. Barak on the defensive, because he can be seen as approaching dictatorship. We know that during the previous Labor administration of Mr. Rabin, some moves on his part led him to being perceived as someone not interested in the rule of law and citizens' democratic rights to express themselves... I think that Arutz-7 represents a very strong body politic, an important representative of a major cultural and religious element in Israeli society."