Israel shutters Palestinian radio station for incitement in overnight raid

Islamic Jihad's Falastin Al-Yom taken off air and offline; channel's manager under arrest.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN, TOVAH LAZAROFF
Updated: MARCH 13, 2016 03:37
IDF seizes illegal weapons in West Bank raid (photo credit: screenshot)
IDF seizes illegal weapons in West Bank raid
(photo credit: screenshot)
The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) together with the IDF and Israel Police shut down an Islamic Jihad television station in the West Bank, security forces said on Friday.
The move comes a day after the security cabinet approved a decision to close Palestinian media outlets that incite terrorism against Israelis. The decision was taken following a renewed spate of Palestinian stabbing and shooting around the country in recent days.
The television station, Falastin al-Yom (Palestine Today), also uses social media networks to send out its content. According to the Shin Bet, the channel “calls for the carrying out of terrorist attacks against the State of Israel and its citizens.
Its messages of incitement are broadcast through the television channel and spread on the Internet,” the domestic intelligence agency added.
The channel’s manager, 34-year-old Faruk Aliat from Bir Zeit, was arrested during the raid. He is an Islamic Jihad operative who has been imprisoned in Israel in the past.
OC Central Command Maj.- Gen. Roni Nume, citing 1945 emergency laws, declared the channel to be an illegal organization, paving the way for its closure.
Incitement to terrorism “serves the interest of terrorist organizations, to widen the circle of terrorists carrying out attacks against targets in Israel and Judea and Samaria,” the Shin Bet said.
On Friday evening, suspected Palestinians hackers briefly invaded an Israeli television broadcast, the popular Big Brother on Channel 2. The broadcast was briefly interrupted by a clip showing images of terrorist attacks and threatening messages in Hebrew.
“Stay in your homes,” begins the ominous text. “The story is not over...there is more to come.” At the bottom of the message is an Arabic title, “Al-Quds Intifada,” a reference to the terrorist violence Israel has experience for some six months, with nearly 30 Israelis killed and dozens more wounded.
Separately, Israel’s embassy in Paris reported on Saturday that France had shut down the transmission from the Hamasrun Al-Aksa television station, for broadcasting incitement on the French satellite service EUTELSAT. The move came in response to a request on Friday by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to French President François Hollande to halt the incitement against Israel and Jews being broadcast by the channel. On Saturday Netanyahu issued a statement thanking Hollande for his help.