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Palestinian Telecommunications Ministry undersecretary Suleiman Zuheiri accused Israel of breaching Oslo's Article 36. It requires Israeli/PA consultations. It says a joint committee is charged with addressing communications issues, including growing Palestinian needs.
The PA called Wednesday's raids the beginning of a "frequency war" over limited broadcasting space. It also prevents both operations from building modern wireless networks. Zuheiri believes Israel may target other PA stations to deny Palestinians their own media.
Israel spuriously said both networks operated illegally. In fact, Israel systematically prevents Palestinian journalists from doing their job in violation of press freedom.
Operations are shut down, journalists arrested, and when covering soldier violence against nonviolent Palestinian protesters, they're attacked, beaten and arrested.
Last November, Israel closed Palestinian-Israeli broadcaster Kol Hashalom (Whole Peace). It falsely claimed it operated without proper licensing, even though Palestinian operations aren't under Israeli jurisdiction.
Founded in 2004 by Israeli and Palestinian peace groups, it's now closed unless efforts to resume operations succeed.
At the time, Israel's Communications Ministry spuriously called the studio a "pirate radio station" operating illegally.
In fact, shutting down Kol Hashalom was lawless. Palestine's Communication Ministry licensed it. At issue is silencing peace advocacy and independent voices. Israel never tolerated them and doesn't now.
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