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Discussion in Committee for Bridging Social Gaps: “The Public Broadcasting Corporation is Under Attack by the Government”

On July 8, 2025, a discussion was held in the Special Committee for Bridging Social Gaps in the Periphery on the topic of unavailability of radio services for Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) and Arab communities in the periphery during emergencies. In effect, under the pretext of emergency periods, Minister Karhi is trying to expand the broadcasting licenses for his political allies, who own regional radio stations, so they can broadcast nationwide with significant economic profits.

During the war with Iran, Karhi demanded, and received, approval from the Second Authority for Broadcasting to grant two temporary permissions for those allies, to broadcast nationwide, under the flimsy claim that this is a security requirement, so that Haredim will receive security reports since they don’t use smartphones and don’t listen to secular radio. The move was criticized by the Second Authority’s legal advisor, who said the decision has no validity as it was made without minimal procedure.

Attorney Ronen Reingold, who represented Zulat Institute in the Knesset discussion, emphasized that the Home Front Command’s position proves that the entire discussion is futile. “It is required that the public radio service be the one to answer this need, insofar as the need exists… Above the entire discussion hovers the fact that the Public broadcast Corporation is under attack by the government,” he said.

Zulat opposes Karhi’s move, which smells of an attempt to weaken the Corporation that already provides a nation-wide solution to the problem and reeks of transferring resources to the ruling party’s friends and loyalists.

To view Attorney Reingold’s full remarks (Hebrew, without English subtitles):

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Dr. Maha Sabbah Karkabi

 

Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Tel Aviv University (2015), a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Gender Studies, SOAS, University of London (2015-2016), a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Sociology at Tel Aviv University (2016-2017), and a postdoctoral fellowship Ph.D. at the Humphrey Institute for Social Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (2018-2020).
Dr. Maha Karbahi’s areas of interest focus on the connection between social change, family behavior, and gender inequality in societies in the process of change and specifically in Palestinian Arab society in Israel. Her research draws attention to the study of family life and employment, using a combined “ethnic lens” and “gender lens” and paying attention to the perspective of Palestinian Arab women, a group characterized by intersections between multiple marginal locations, which over the years has remained hidden from the research eye. Dr. Karkabi-Sabah’s research is published in professional journals and chapters in scientific books that are considered pioneers in family research, work, and gender equality.

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Prof. Frances Raday

Professor Emeritus in the Lieberman Chair in Labor Law, in the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University and serves as a full professor in the College of Management’s academic track, where she also serves as chair of the graduate program and as honorary president of the Concord Center for International Law Absorption. Radai was a member of a working group of the UN Human Rights Council on discrimination against women. In addition, she is a prominent and feminist human rights activist.

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Dr. Rawia Aburabia 

Faculty member of Sapir Academic College’s School of Law, received her PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research deals with the interface between law, gender, minorities, and human rights. Has published in leading journals on the subject of the matrimonial laws pertaining to Muslim women in Israel. Her book Under the Law, Outside Justice: Polygamy, Gendered Citizenship, and Colonialism in Israeli Law is expected to be published as part of the Gender Series of Kibbutz Meuhad Publishing House.

Dr. Aburabia has extensive experience in international human rights and public law. She has worked as a jurist for the Association for Civil Right and has been invited as a specialist to address such international forums as the United Nations and the European Parliament on the subject of indigenous communities and minority rights. She has interned with Human Rights Watch in Washington DC, and has been a member of the executive board of Amnesty International. In 2018, she was selected by the magazine Globes as one of the 40 most promising young persons in Israel under the age of 40.

 

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Ron Kessler

With over two decades of experience in the field of digital content, Ron has participated in numerous political and social campaigns. He helped run the digital activity of senior public officials, and worked in various NGOs. Ron is a fundamentally optimistic man, who believes that Israel can be changed and so can people. Lives in Tel Aviv.