At the first hearing on Wednesday over the controversial closure of Army Radio, the High Court of Justice challenged the government’s representative to explain how cabinet ministers’ public calls to shutter the station — made before an advisory committee issued its recommendations — did not amount to political interference.

The justices also pressed petitioners opposing the government’s decision to close Army Radio — a public broadcaster established by the government in 1950 as a department of the Israel Defense Forces — over claims that the government did not have the authority to close the station without legislation.

Following the cabinet’s December 2025 decision to close Army Radio, critics have accused the government of targeting the station for insufficiently supportive coverage, while petitioners alleged a series of procedural flaws they said also infringed on freedom of expression and freedom of the press in Israel.

At the end of the hearing, Justice Daphne Barak-Erez said the court would issue a decision on whether to grant a conditional order against the government, requiring it to further justify its decision “at the right time.”

Wednesday’s hearing was marred by one incident in which two members of the viewing public accused the court of “only serving the left,” and falsely asserted that Barak-Erez herself had served in Army Radio. The two women were ejected from the courtroom by court security.

Several prominent journalists, including current and former Army Radio broadcasters, were present at the hearing over the station’s closure, which has long been a key player in Israel’s media landscape with a reported one million listeners.

In December last year, the cabinet unanimously approved Defense Minister Israel Katz’s controversial proposal to shut down Army Radio by March 1, 2026. The decision was based on the recommendation of an advisory committee appointed by Katz, which recommended shuttering the station after 19 days of deliberation.

Several organizations petitioned the High Court against the decision, arguing that the government needed to pass legislation to close Army Radio, and that even if a simple cabinet decision was, in theory,........

© The Times of Israel