Minister says AP equipment returned after Defense Ministry refused to back move

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi says seized equipment was returned to the Associated Press earlier this week because the Defense Ministry “got cold feet” about the move.

Speaking to Radio 103, Karhi does little to hide his disdain for Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, a fellow Likud member, alleging that “sometimes his leftism slips out.”

Karhi says after his office confiscated AP equipment in Sderot used to provide a live feed of Gaza, which the banned al Jazeera had used, he took the matter to the Defense Ministry to validate the move.

“We went to the Defense Ministry and he said ‘I need to look into it,'” Karhi says, presumably referring to Gallant.

He appears to criticize the ministry for equivocating.

“It’s serious insofar as it endangers our troops… I saw the security assessments on which the legal opinion underpinning the decision to close Al Jazeera was based,” he says. “The Defense Ministry got cold feet.”

His ministry decided to return the seized equipment “after we understood the Defense Ministry was not prepared to say [the AP feed] was dangerous,” he adds. He notes he does not have the standing to challenge the ministry on the matter, distancing himself from the about-face.

“If they decide it’s dangerous, I’ll confiscate it,” he says.

In a statement carried by the Walla news site, the Defense Ministry says it had nothing to do with the decision to seize or return the AP equipment.