A packed hearing - the first in the case - opened at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem on Wednesday to examine the legality of the government’s decision to shutter Army Radio.
The hearing is being heard before Justices Dafna Barak-Erez, Alex Stein, and Yechiel Kasher.
The government decided in December to shut down the 75-year-old military broadcaster, citing the recommendations of a professional committee, after Defense Minister Israel Katz had pushed for the move for several months.
The decision included two operative directives: an immediate halt to the assignment of new military positions to the station, and the initiation of a process to transfer existing personnel to other posts within the IDF, alongside the preparation of severance arrangements for external contractors.
The decision was set to take effect on March 1, but its implementation was frozen by an interim order issued by the court.
Since then, and ahead of Wednesday’s hearing, five petitioners have consolidated their legal challenges against the move.
A dangerous step in the current political climate
Notably, the attorney general’s office - which would ordinarily represent the government in such proceedings - has concluded that the decision was taken without proper authority and warned that it constitutes a dangerous step in the current legislative and political climate.
The government, for its part, has argued that the decision falls squarely within its authority, that efforts to close the station predate the current administration, and that there is no justification for continued public funding of a news outlet which, according to its position, has repeatedly contradicted official state policy.