Israeli Troops 'Raid West Bank TV Stations'

Israeli Troops ‘Raid West Bank TV Stations’

World News • February 2012 • Views: 1,391

Israeli troops raided two Palestinian television stations in the West Bank city of Ramallah overnight, seizing computers and broadcasting equipment, employees told AFP on Wednesday.

The Israeli military confirmed the raids, saying the stations targeted had been broadcasting illegally, a charge rejected by the Palestinian telecommunications minister.

The two stations affected were Watan Television, a local private station, and Quds Educational Television, affiliated with the Palestinian Al-Quds University.

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10 comments

shutdown Wed, Feb 29, 2012 2:33:36pm

What? No more cartoons with Martyr Mouse and Jihad Minnie?

Ace-o-aces Wed, Feb 29, 2012 3:53:29pm

I'm sorry, but there is no excuse for this. The IDF's "explanation" doesn't pass the smell test. You don't deal with broadcast interference with an armed raid where you steal hard drives. The Israelis better have a better story soon.

Archangelus Wed, Feb 29, 2012 4:26:20pm

re: #2 Ace-o-aces

The Israelis better have a better story soon.

They already have one hell of a solid one; the transmissions from pirate stations, other than illegally using frequencies and channels, represent a genuine threat to life - passenger aircraft in Israel nearly suffered catastrophic results on several occasions due to interference from pirate station transmissions in the past couple of years alone.
They weren't after the hard drives; According to reports, local authorities knew that the transmissions from that station and another were causing interference that influenced Ben Gurion Air Port (which sees millions of travelers from around the world annually), and the station had received multiple requests to alter or halt the activities. Given that they didn't, and given the risk it posed, they acted. Israeli police have no authority or jurisdiction in such issues, and a previous raid after one of the near disastrous occurrences ended in some of the people opening fire at the approaching force.

Would you have been belting that comment out if it came in the wake of several hundred passengers dying from an Air France or JetBlu passenger aircraft crashing due to transmission interference? Cause frankly, its nothing short of a miracle that something like that hasn't happened yet...

Locker Wed, Feb 29, 2012 4:44:27pm

If you are going belt out comments then maybe you ought to back up your BS with some links ... oh I know it's "according to reports" that only you know about.

Bob Levin Wed, Feb 29, 2012 4:47:18pm

re: #4 Locker

Are you going to apologize if he comes in with the links?

shutdown Wed, Feb 29, 2012 10:17:55pm

[Link: www.newvoices.org...]
[Link: www.aero-news.net...]
The problem of unlicensed broadcasters interfering with ATC is not a new one, and has been reported on in the past.

researchok Thu, Mar 1, 2012 1:16:48am

It is a matter of who you think is more credible- Israel or the Palestinian Authority.

Archangelus Thu, Mar 1, 2012 3:50:59am

[Link: www.sfgate.com...] - "...al-Watan TV, is a pirate station whose frequencies interfered with legal broadcasters and aircraft communications"

[Link: www.globes.co.il...] Pirate radio station in PA endangered traffic at Ben Gurion Airport (2001)

[Link: www.thefreelibrary.com...] - Takeoffs halted at Israeli airport due to interference from pirate radios. (2004)

[Link: www.airport-int.com...] - Israel Airport Affected by Pirate Radio (2007)

[Link: news.bbc.co.uk...] - West Bank Pirate Radio Stops Israeli Flights (2007)

[Link: www.haaretz.com...] - Israeli Cabinet goes to war on pirate radio stations after dozens of disruptions, near-disaster at B-G Airport (2007)

[Link: www.haaretz.com...] - Communications Ministry to intensify fight against pirate radio after pressure, strike threats by distressed aviation employees

Not bothered to translated the near hundreds more in Hebrew which covered more near-miss collision events and other incidents due to transmission issues over the past decade..

Also:
[Link: www.ynetnews.com...] - PA, Israel cooperate against pirate radio aviation threat (2010)
Kindly note that in the past several years (much more than just once source BTW), both the PA and Israel have been fighting the issue together (the PA has its own issues with the stations, so its something of a win-win situation). The only reason there's an uproar against this is because the station's owner is apparently tied to one of the Barghoutis, who are generally among the higher-ups of Palestinian politics.

And while on the subject:
[Link: www.globes.co.il...] - Gov't to penalize advertisers, authorize police against Israeli pirate radio stations (2004)
It's not just a Palestinian issue - Israel has acted equally as hard towards Israeli pirate radio stations as well, but none of those were near BG airport, so it's been more out of principle than out of an actual threat for the most part (with one exception in late 2002/ early 2003 that I remember well but can't find a link for, when they took out a religious Jewish station channel that was interfering with frequencies near a small airfield in northern Israel).

As it happens, I'm very familiar with this issue and take it somewhat personally, in great part due to the fact that I was on one of two planes that nearly collided into each other due to transmission interference. So yes, I support the IDF's actions here, just as any other branch of authority would act against any pirate radio station that posed a threat to aviation in the US, Europe, Asia or anywhere else in the damn world. The primary reason it was the military is cause, again, Israeli police do not have jurisdiction there.

Archangelus Thu, Mar 1, 2012 4:07:40am

Oh, and nice source by the way, lovely comments:

Eatme: Welcome to the New Nazi Germany.......

Sickofthestupid: ...but I have absolutely no problem with dead Israeli's

Sickofthestupid:...it is Israel that always has struck me has the psychos in the region........................and from what I have seen the sooner they are wiped off the planet the better off the world will be.