"One wakes up in the morning and turns on the radio," said Har'el Cohen of Beit El today, "and hears one of the public stations talking about the 'innocent Palestinians' who were killed in an IDF attack. So he switches to another public station, and hears a debate about why we should leave Netzarim. In short, he begins to miss Arutz-7... We realized that we had to do something." Thus explained Cohen why he and some friends have formed the "Action Committee for Arutz-7."
Cohen explained that the committee is working on various angles, including pressuring MKs to "wake up and realize that a legal solution has to be found. It doesn't really matter to us private citizens exactly what solution is found - as long as we can once again hear Arutz-7 as a recognized station... We are also working in different directions, such as putting up signs on the roads against the closure of Arutz-7. Starting Friday, we will have volunteers who will be standing at intersections, wearing Arutz-7 hats and T-shirts, giving out stickers, and the like. The motto is that Arutz-7 must be licensed and that we demand freedom of speech."
"In general," Cohen continued, "we encourage Arutz-7 fans and sympathizers to call up the other radio stations' talk shows, and send faxes and the like, and to demand our rights. After all, for 15 years we have grown accustomed to hearing Arutz-7 and not listening to the other stations. We are a third of the population who wish to hear traditional-Jewish and nationalistic programming, which means that 1/3 of air-time on public radio should be devoted to these topics. But at present, these issues don't even have 1% of the time on these stations... We have already gotten 10,000 petition signatures, but we know that there are hundreds of thousands of listeners, based on the donations that come in, according to the information given us by the Arutz-7 management. So we are trying to get all of them to sign the petition, whether on the internet, or by posting copies in synagogues, schools, and the like."
Internet petitions for Arutz-7 may be signed at here,
or here,
and, in Hebrew, at this link.
The committee's phone number in Israel is 1212-29-8888.
Cohen explained that the committee is working on various angles, including pressuring MKs to "wake up and realize that a legal solution has to be found. It doesn't really matter to us private citizens exactly what solution is found - as long as we can once again hear Arutz-7 as a recognized station... We are also working in different directions, such as putting up signs on the roads against the closure of Arutz-7. Starting Friday, we will have volunteers who will be standing at intersections, wearing Arutz-7 hats and T-shirts, giving out stickers, and the like. The motto is that Arutz-7 must be licensed and that we demand freedom of speech."
"In general," Cohen continued, "we encourage Arutz-7 fans and sympathizers to call up the other radio stations' talk shows, and send faxes and the like, and to demand our rights. After all, for 15 years we have grown accustomed to hearing Arutz-7 and not listening to the other stations. We are a third of the population who wish to hear traditional-Jewish and nationalistic programming, which means that 1/3 of air-time on public radio should be devoted to these topics. But at present, these issues don't even have 1% of the time on these stations... We have already gotten 10,000 petition signatures, but we know that there are hundreds of thousands of listeners, based on the donations that come in, according to the information given us by the Arutz-7 management. So we are trying to get all of them to sign the petition, whether on the internet, or by posting copies in synagogues, schools, and the like."
Internet petitions for Arutz-7 may be signed at here,
or here,
and, in Hebrew, at this link.
The committee's phone number in Israel is 1212-29-8888.