I believe that Minister Karei's letter dated March 30,2025 greatly strengthens the argument of the petitioners and the Attorney General regarding the consideration of extraneous considerations as dominant considerations when making the decision to close Army Radio.
I would also like to point out this: In my opinion, the claim that the station's broadcasts lowered the morale of IDF soldiers, harmed morale, etc., is nothing but a different formulation of the claimant's political outlook. Thus, just as someone who sees certain content as an affront to the military spirit, so his political opponent may see In the same content Because An important contribution to its strengthening of the military spirit.
Moreover, the claim that the broadcasts of Army Radio, especially during the war, harmed the morale of the soldiers, which was made more than once as a supposedly justification for the closure of the station (see also below), was not based on any factual basis, and no attempt was made to substantiate it before us. Also, it will not be superfluous to note that no support was found In this argument in the words of the representative of the"to appear before the committee, and ostensibly the statistics that were brought in this matter To the Committee Teach differently.
It should also be noted that counsel for the Government Respondents tried to downplay the importance of the above, by describing them as a kind of exchange of private impressions between the parties to the correspondence. This is not the case: this is an official letter from the Minister of Communications, on the letterhead of his office, addressed to the Minister of Defense, immediately following the Prime Minister's request, and as someone who sees himself - together with the Minister of Defense, since the Prime Minister has addressed both of them - as the person in charge of leading the entire process.
- Although I am of the opinion that with regard to Minister Karei's position, the words quoted above speak for themselves, it would not be superfluous to refer to previous statements written by Minister Karei, long before the establishment of the Advisory Committee, which show that what was stated in his letter above was not coincidental, but rather an expression of a consistent approach that accompanied Minister Karei's position for years. Thus, in a post published by Minister Karei on his social media account on June 30,2021, the minister noted that: "There is already a bill of mine to privatize Army Radio and open the regional stations to national frequencies. If Hendel [then-communications minister Y.C.] wants action and not vindictive populism, let him pass my bill as soon as possible, along with the proposal to privatize the corporation as well. As it seems, they are going to replace a cow with a donkey and continue to spend public money on a new leftist station..." (Appendix 13 to the petition of the Movement for Quality Government in Israel; emphasis added - Y. 20).
In addition, in another publication published by Minister Karei on his account of November 6,2022, the Minister noted the following: "What is the connection between the defense budget and Continuation of Gali Gantz's incitement speech? Only because until now they could. We, God willing, privatize this political station, which has no connection to the IDF(Appendix 14 to the petition of the Movement for Quality Government for Israel; Emphasis added - 10:20).