Oct 6, 2014

Supreme Court allows Arab radio station to broadcast on Yom Kippur

A regional Arab radio station wanted to be able to broadcast on Yom Kippur. Their audeince, the Arab community, does not celebrate Yom Kippur, so there is no reason they should not be able to broadcast.

The Broadcasting Authority was actually following the law, as the license specifically disallows broadcasting on Yom Kippur.

After the Broadcasting Authority basically ignored the request and did not even bother to respond, representatives of A-Shames Radio appealed to the Supreme Court. The court issued a temporary order allowing them to broadcast on Yom Kippur, due to the lack of response from the Broadcasting Authority, but the full appeal for future Yom Kippurs will only be heard later.

Does it bother me that Arabs broadcast on their radio station on Yom Kippur? no. Does it make me feel any less about Israel being a Jewish State because there was not total radio silence on Yom Kippur? no.

What I see as  a bigger issue is that there are Jews who might hear, or listen to, these radio broadcasts on Yom Kippur, whether it bothers them or not. And Jews who express outrage about the Arab broadcasts - either they wouldn't hear them anyway so it should not be offensive or they shouldn't be listening.

Though I am not sure why the court allowed it on a temporary basis considering it is excluded form the license. I'd think they should have opened it up for debate and discussion, which they did for a coming date, but temporarily continue to disallow it. The court does not need to uphold the law anymore?


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