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MADA: Radio Dream was shut down by IOF

Ramallah-29/11/2015- early Sunday, 29th of November, IOF shut down the third Palestinian radio station (Dream) in Hebron city in West Bank within less than one month, after raiding its headquarter and destructing  its equipment and devices. However, this records a new peak of  the systematic trends of IOF to suppress Palestinian media freedoms and media outlets, especially since the Israeli threats to close up a number of  Palestinian radio stations..

 

Oda  Ja’bari-the head of Dream Radio Station- reported to MADA: “ 29th of November, at around 2:00AM on Sunday, an occupation forc:30 military patrols and 200 soldiers including policemen and intelligence as well as special forces raided the headquarter of Dream Radio Station, which is located in in Hebron city. Hence, Israeli soldiers explode the entrance of the building and entered to the radio’s headquarter, where there was no one except the broadcasting engineer Ameer Abu Gahlyon. He added “they confiscated the broadcasting device, computers, TV screens, cameras and some files in addition to destructing various equipment of the office as staying in it for around one hour. Hence, they handed us two copies of a decision (in Arabic and Hebrew), which was issued by IOF, stipulate to shut the radio station down  for six months, for allegedly involved in inciting against “Israel” in addition to inciting for killing innocents.”

 

Similarly, in 3rd and 21st of November, IOF shut down the radio stations of “Manbar Al-Houria” and “Sawt El-Khalil (Hebron voice) after they raided their headquarters and confiscated the broadcasting devises and most of their equipment (both of them issued from Hebron gonvernate), for allegedly involved in “exercising incitement”. Hence, IOF handed both radio stations a decision to shut them down for a period of six months, which is also similar to what happened to Dream radio station today..

 

26th of November, “Nas” Radio Station, which broadcasts from Jenin city (north of west Bank), also was handed a decision via fax that threaten to shut it down as well as confiscating its equipment,  for allegedly involved in “exercising incitement”. Similarly, IOF threaten “One” radio station and Wattan TV in Hebron to shut them down since they allowed Manbar El-Houria radio station to broadcast from their headquarters and through their frequency after shutting it down.

 

This attack against  Palestinian radio stations is coincided with the extensive assaults for suppressing journalists (as 112 Israeli violations against media freedoms in Palestine were monitored last month). Indeed, this violation reveals a new trend and policy of the Israeli occupation forces to suppress and silence media outlets and journalists, especially which the closure of these radio stations means excluding dozens of journalists from their work for a long period time. Furthermore, these radio stations may be unable to rework later due to incurring material losses.

 

Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms “MADA” condemns the attack against “Dream Radio Station” in addition to the previous attacks against Manbar Al-Houria and Sawt Al-Khalil radio stations”. MADA also condemns the suppression attacks that generally targeting Palestinian radio stations and media freedoms.  However, it urges the International Community to put pressure on the Israeli Government, to cancel the Israeli occupation decisions which stipulate to shut down the radio stations that mentioned above, rather than returning the confiscated equipment, and reimbursement for all destructed equipment. It also urges to force the Israeli occupation , to abide by International Laws that guarantee Freedom of Expression.

 

A Photo from Dream Radio Station page on Facebook

The head of Dream Radio shows the closure dicision issued by IOF