IDF shuts down Hebron-area radio station for ‘incitement’
Al-Sabanel suspected of praising terrorists, encouraging Palestinians to fight Israel
Judah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel's religions and Diaspora affairs correspondent.
IDF troops shuttered a Palestinian radio station and arrested five employees in the southern West Bank early Wednesday morning for “broadcasting inciting programs,” the army said.
The al-Sanabel radio station, located in Dura, outside of Hebron, allegedly supported attacks on Israelis, praised terrorist activities and called for Palestinians to join the uprising against Israel.
Under the orders of Maj. Gen. Roni Numa, head of the army’s Central Command, IDF soldiers, along with police officers, Shin Bet security service agents and representatives from the Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration, entered the radio station early Wednesday morning and seized “technical equipment and transmitters,” the army said.
The five employees arrested by the army were handed over to the Shin Bet for further questioning.
In separate raids, IDF soldiers arrested eight Palestinians in the West Bank, mostly for throwing rocks and taking part in “violent riots against citizens and security forces,” the army said.
Two of the people arrested — one from Hebron and one from Salem in the northern West Bank — are suspected of membership in the Hamas terrorist organization, the army said.
In March, the IDF shut down another West Bank broadcaster, Palestine al-Yawm — or “Palestine Today” — under similar accusations of incitement.
“The station was apparently used by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad organization as a central instrument in inciting the population of the West Bank, as it called for terror attacks to be carried out against the State of Israel and its residents,” the Shin Bet said at the time.
Israeli political leaders have spoken out repeatedly about incitement in Palestinian media, and Palestinian television programs have been cited as sources of inspiration in several Shin Bet investigations of terrorists.
In January, 15-year-old Morad Bader Abdullah Adais, who has been charged with stabbing Israeli mother of six Dafna Meir to death, told interrogators he was influenced by “Palestinian television broadcasts which portrayed Israel as ‘killing young Palestinians,'” according to the Shin Bet.
