An important chapter in Arutz-7 history ends today, with the sale of the Eretz HaTzvi ship. Yoel Tzur, Arutz-7's Technical Manager, said today that the ship has been sold for scrap, and that at "4:00 this afternoon it will leave for Izmir in Turkey, where it will be taken apart and sawed down." Tzur said that there had been two other options: "To sell it for use as a ship, but since it's 35 years old - built in Hungary in 1968 - it did not attract too many buyers... The other option was simply to sink it, which we did not want to do. Every day it stands idle in the ocean it costs us money, so we chose to sell it for scrap."
Asked to recount some of his memories of the Eretz HaTzvi, Tzur said, "There were very many. In the summer, we enjoyed going out to the ship, to go fishing and have a barbecue... In the winter, there were storms and difficulties getting the tapes out there, and the broadcasters and crew would complain that they wanted to get off... It was a period of a lot of tension and a lot of responsibility. But this period is over, and we're headed now for even bigger things - apparently this wasn't big enough for us..." Interviewer Ariel Kahane, who spent over a year as a broadcaster on the ship, agreed that it was a special experience. "One thing I remember is how we used to supply food to Abie Natan's Voice of Peace crew," he said.
Asked to recount some of his memories of the Eretz HaTzvi, Tzur said, "There were very many. In the summer, we enjoyed going out to the ship, to go fishing and have a barbecue... In the winter, there were storms and difficulties getting the tapes out there, and the broadcasters and crew would complain that they wanted to get off... It was a period of a lot of tension and a lot of responsibility. But this period is over, and we're headed now for even bigger things - apparently this wasn't big enough for us..." Interviewer Ariel Kahane, who spent over a year as a broadcaster on the ship, agreed that it was a special experience. "One thing I remember is how we used to supply food to Abie Natan's Voice of Peace crew," he said.