Arutz Sheva

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Arutz Sheva (Channel Seven) is a right-wing Israeli online media network identifying with Religious Zionism. It offers online news in English, Hebrew, French and Russian in three formats: written, internet radio, and internet television. The Israeli government has never granted it a license to broadcast, prompting charges of government discrimination against the right-wing, religious public.

1 History
2 Departments
3 External links

[edit] History

Founded in 1988 as a radio station, it formerly broadcasted on the Israeli airwaves from the ship MV Hatzvi in the Mediterranean Sea outside of Israel's territorial waters until being shutdown by the Israeli government. The Hatzvi was much larger than most radio ships, but was broken up in 2003. Arutz Sheva may have the distinction of being the world's last ever offshore radio station.

Currently the station broadcasts over the Internet from its website which it has been running for about the last ten years. It was forced to broadcast from a ship because Israeli law only permits private radio station on the local level.

In February 1999, the Knesset passed a law legalizing the operation of Arutz Sheva and absolving it of earlier illegal broadcasting, but this was appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court which ruled the law null and void in March, 2002. Supporters of the station claim this is due to opposition to their right-wing views. In October 2003, ten employees of Arutz Sheva were convicted of operating an illegal radio station during the period 1995-1998, both from offshore and on land. [1]

Arutz Sheva had a Hebrew frequency and a foreign language frequency (English, Russian, and French) and it still broadcasts in Hebrew, English, and Russian over the Internet. Written news exists in all four languages on the website as does Internet TV news in English and Hebrew.

Arutz Sheva means Channel Seven in Hebrew. Its main studios are located in Beit El, Samaria. It was founded by students and rabbis of the Beit El Yeshiva. It also operates another studio in Petah Tikva which is where Arutz Sheva TV is located as well as the printing press for its B'Sheva newspaper.

In terms of politics, the station is considered far right wing, and religious zionist in its outlook, and is focused on Israeli nationalism. However, it has a strong American-centric feel, with most of its presenters originating in America.

[edit] Departments

[edit] Israel National News

Israel National News [2] is the written news website. Hillel Fendel is the senior news editor and is responsible for the site's popular daily email. News editor Ezra HaLevi oversees lengthier feature stories and photo essays, along with in-depth reporting from the hilltop outpost communities of the West Bank and flashpoints.

[edit] Israel National Radio

Israel National Radio [3] is Arutz Sheva's Anglophone Internet radio station operating in its own studio across in the same building as the Hebrew studio in Beit El. It broadcasts primarily across the Internet, and affirms its purpose as to spread the word of Israel to Jews and Israel-sympathizers living in English speaking countries as well as Anglophones living in Israel, to be the archetypal "light unto the nations".

The station is made up of news on the hour and half-hour, and live and pre-recorded programs that repeat themselves throughout the day after the first airing. These shows include current affairs commentaries, general talk shows, music shows, and Torah shows. The station's slogan is "the only independent news-talk network in the Middle East."

Prior to the banning of Arutz-7's regular radio broadcasts, the station would air for three hours a day on Arutz-7's foreign language frequency, which at other times broadcast in Russian and French.

The main broadcasters on the station are Yishai Fleisher, his wife Malkah Fleisher, Tamar Yonah, Alex Traiman, and renowned anti-missionary Rabbi Tovia Singer known as the "Chief Rabbi of Newstalk Radio." Other broadcasters do weekly shows while the just-named broadcasters air multiple days a week. The weekly shows include The Activist Hour, The Beat (a music program), Walter's World, Temple Talk (hosted by Rabbi Chaim Richman, a rabbi who works for the Temple Institute and serves on the Sanhedrin), The Eshet Chayil ('Woman of Valor') Show, A Light Unto The Nations, The Jay Shapiro Show, Torah Tidbits Audio, and The Aliyah Revolution. These shows are archived for a week.

In the station's own words, "The station supports the unity of the Land of Israel and spent many hours devoted to protecting Gush Katif from Ariel Sharon's Disengagement Plan, which we refer to as the Expulsion Plan, and Yishai and Malkah Fleisher even moved to Gush Katif prior to the expulsion of its Jews to do live shows from there. The Fleishers themselves were forcibly removed from Gush Katif by the Israeli Army."

During shows, people can phone in on international toll-free numbers or chat with other listeners in a virtual studio.