Army Radio, one in every of Israel’s foremost information radio stations, can be relocated to Jerusalem and can start broadcasting from the capital within three months, the Defense Ministry introduced on Sunday.
The transfer follows a lot squabbling over whether or not to relocate the army radio station and whether or not to make it a part of the Defense Ministry somewhat than the IDF.
In an assertion, the ministry stated that Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman had determined to switch the station’s studios from its longtime constructing in Jaffa to a new army compound being constructed close to the principle entrance to Jerusalem.
It mentioned the brand new Army Radio headquarters can be situated within the capital’s “Beit HaChayal” (hostel for lone troopers), which is to be rebuilt into a new 2,500-square-meter protection advanced that can embrace a new military recruiting station.
The assertion mentioned the choice got here after intensive preparatory work involving the Jerusalem Municipality and the IDF, together with the station’s staff.
The new studio will serve each Army Radio — recognized in Hebrew as Galei Tzahal — and its sister music station, Galgalatz.
While the brand new advanced is about to be opened in three years, the Defense Ministry mentioned a present Army Radio studio in Jerusalem can be upgraded and can start broadcasting information in three months.
A pc simulation launched on June 3, 2018, of the brand new protection advanced being constructed close to the doorway to Jerusalem, set to open in 2021. (Defense Ministry)
“When I was sworn in as defense minister, I decided that Army Radio, as Israel’s leading public broadcasting station, must broadcast from our capital Jerusalem,” Liberman mentioned, in accordance to the assertion.
“Today, I am glad to say that train is one its way to the station,” he additionally mentioned. “We will not stop to strengthen Jerusalem in every way.”
Army Radio’s commander, Shimon Elkabetz, praised the transfer and mentioned: “The natural place for public broadcasting is in the capital of Israel.”
Army Radio has been on the chopping block for years as the military has seemed to streamline itself.
“The military position is against closing it, but it doesn’t need to be within the IDF. The IDF does not need to have any public media outlets. Where it goes is for the government to decide,” an IDF official instructed Famzn News in November 2015.
Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman in Katzrin, May 11, 2018. (Basel Awidat/Flash90)
Last yr, Liberman introduced that the Galei Tzahal and Galgalatz stations, would stop being subordinate to the IDF and turn out to be as an alternative a unit of the Defense Ministry. But the following month Liberman walked again the plan following a dialogue with Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit.
The try to transfer the radio station to the Defense Ministry was met with rapid resistance, notably from the Organization of IDF Workers, which promised to struggle the unit’s switch as the choice had been made with out session.
On Sunday, the Defense Ministry mentioned the Organization of IDF Workers had been concerned within the new plan.
Army Radio started its broadcasts in 1950, taking up for the pre-state Haganah’s broadcasts.
It has served as a breeding floor for a number of the nation’s most famed journalists, together with Ilana Dayan, Yonit Levy and Nitzan Horowitz.
Given its twin function as an information broadcaster and an army unit, the radio station has recurrently been criticized by lawmakers for showing to take sides on political and cultural points.