Israel Shuts Down Palestinian Sanabel Radio in Hebron

August 31st, 2016

Awake Goy

nsnbc : Israeli soldiers raided and ransacked Sanabel Radio in the city of Doura in the Palestinian West Bank district of Hebron. Israeli authorities claim that it shut down the radio for three month. However, in 2007, the occupying power shut down Sanabel TV after a similar raid.

Soldiers from “the only democracy in the Middle East”, as most U.S. Senators would describe Israel, raided Sanabel Radio, confiscated equipment and arrested several of its employees.

Detained were, Sanabel Station Manager Ahmad Daraweesh, as well as Mohammad Sous, Nidal Amro, Montaser Nassar and Hamed Nammoura. After their detention, Israeli soldiers raided and ransacked the homes of the media workers.

It is at this time uncertain whether they will be help captive, for how long, whether there will be pressed charges against them, which charges, or whether they will arbitrarily be held in so-called administrative detention.

Israeli officials attempt to justify the crack down on and lock-down of the radio station, claiming that it “incited against Israel”. That would be the power that continues its illegal occupation of Palestine, the building and expansion of illegal settlements, holds Palestinian in administrative detention in violation of international law, … Sanabel didn’t exactly have to do in depth investigations to find plenty of material that could be construed as “incitement”.

nsnbc international editor-in-chief Christof Lehmann, in a phone call on Wednesday morning, stressed that journalists worldwide, need to focus both on Israel’s systematic oppression of Palestinian media and on holding Palestinian authorities to account too.

He added that the Palestinian Authority often fails to adequately respond to Israeli violations of press freedom and that surveys conducted by MADA reveal that disturbingly many Palestinian journalists are self-censoring.

Lehmann also urged journalists and media to recall that a raid against Sanabel TV and the initial suspension of the station for a limited period, resulted in the permanent closure of the TV Station.

Sanabel TV was until its closure in late February 2007 the most popular, and in fact, the only locally operated Palestinian TV channel in the district. Lehmann warned that lack of international attention could result in the permanent closure of Sanabel Radio and set further precedent for Israel’s unopposed “war on the press”.

F/AK – nsnbc 31.08.2016

Source Article from http://nsnbc.me/2016/08/31/israel-shuts-down-palestinian-sanabel-radio-in-nablus/