Likud minister seeks government approval to shutter Army Radio, charging it damages ‘wartime unity’

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi says he is working together with Defense Minister Israel Katz to shutter Israel’s Army Radio, which he says has become “detached from its original mission,” and publishes a copy of a letter he sent to Katz earlier today on the matter.

The move comes after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu questioned the point of Army Radio and instructed Karhi and Katz to look into it during a cabinet meeting this morning.

In a letter to fellow Likud ally Katz, Karhi says that Army Radio, “which was originally set up as a military station to support and connect with IDF soldiers, has long since become a political stronghold, detached from its original purpose.”

“Criticism of soldiers and continuous damage to the values of national unity during wartime have become routine,” he adds.

“It is unreasonable for a democratic country would operate a military radio station, let alone a political one, that, instead of being ‘the soldiers’ home,’ depresses them.”

“Our soldiers return from the battlefield and are forced to listen to content that is not only unsupportive but sometimes harshly critical of their work,” says Karhi.

He tells Katz that he has drafted a joint Defense Ministry and Communications Ministry decision to shutter the radio station, and requests that he bring it for government approval “as soon as possible,” once the necessary preparations for the station’s closure have been made.

Army Radio has long been in the crosshairs of defense and military officials, who have proposed over the years to reform it, shrink it, or shutter it entirely.

Former defense minister Yoav Gallant and former IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi disagreed on what its future should look like, with the former suggesting major changes to its programming, and the latter hoping to see it removed from the military’s purview entirely.

While not a defense official, Karhi has long held that the radio station is superfluous, and has vowed to shutter it along with the Kan public broadcaster.