Israel's Supreme Court has blocked the Netanyahu government’s attempt to shut down Army Radio after a months-long legal challenge.
A three-justice panel ruled that the move was “distinctly undemocratic” and fuelled by an “improper motive” to interfere with the station’s editorial content.
Defence Minister Israel Katz confirmed in November that he would look to dismantle the network amid allegations from right-wing MKs that it had become politicised.
Katz said he would order the outlet to cease all broadcasts by March 1 of this year, in a move heavily opposed by media unions.
He claimed at the time that the decision was necessary to protect the IDF’s political neutrality, calling the operation of a civilian-style media platform by the military “an anomaly unheard of in any democratic country in the world”.
"Army Radio was established by the Israeli government as a military station to serve as a voice and ear for IDF soldiers and their families — not as a platform for opinions, many of which attack the IDF and its soldiers,” he said in a statement.
"In recent years, particularly during the war, many soldiers and civilians – including bereaved families – have repeatedly complained that the station does not represent them and even harms the war effort and morale.
"Worse still, our enemies interpret these messages as if they are being conveyed by the IDF itself.”
However, in February, the court enforced a provisional order preventing the closure, which Thursday’s decision made permanent.
In his opinion, Justice Yechiel Kasher wrote: “It’s unconscionable that someone with governing authority will decide that, since they don’t like a broadcaster’s words, the broadcaster’s microphone must be shut off.
"A government that operates in this manner is distinctly undemocratic.”
Responding to the ruling, Katz accused the court of “placing its own judgment above that of the elected government ministers, who unanimously believed that there is no place for a civilian radio station with political content within the military”.
And he insisted the government would revisit the policy “when we win” the upcoming Knesset elections in October.
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