(MENAFN- Gulf Times) The Israeli army yesterday raided and shut down a Palestinian radio station, confiscating equipment and causing significant damage, after the military accused it of celebrating attacks on Israelis.
Dozens of soldiers barged into the offices of the Al Hurria station in Hebron in the occupied West Bank in the early hours of the morning, the station's executive director said in a video posted online.
The army said the station was shut down and that its coverage "glorifies attacks against Israelis".
Ayman al-Qawasmi, Al Hurria's director, said soldiers approached the building around 2am.
"We thought it was related to the campaign of arrests but were surprised to see they were targeting the radio's premises," he said.
"Unfortunately they destroyed everything inside the building, there is nothing left... They confiscated broadcasting equipment, microphones."
An AFP photographer at the station said damage caused by the raid was considerable, with equipment and signs torn from walls and furniture upturned.
The Union of Palestinian Journalists said the station was informed it would be closed until April, calling the decision an "awful and heinous crime which reflects the (Israelis') barbaric, criminal, terrorist mentality towards Palestinian media".
The Israeli army said media incitement was a key factor in the "aggravation, encouraging and celebration of the recent wave of terror".
The station, the army said, "encourages stabbing attacks, violent riots and reports false and malicious claims of security forces executing and kidnapping Palestinians in order to provoke violence".
In the past two weeks, around 20 young Palestinians have been shot by Israeli forces in and around Hebron. The army has accused them of trying to stab Israeli security forces or settlers.
Palestinians-including media outlets such as Al Hurria-have in some cases disputed the official version of events, claiming some of the dead were either unarmed or did not represent a direct threat.
Al Hurria was formed in the Gaza Strip in 2002 by Fatah, the political party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the Israeli army said.
After the strip was taken over by Hamas, the station moved to Hebron in the West Bank, it said.
Israel has closed the station twice before, in 2002 and 2008.
Nine Israelis, 68 Palestinians-around half of them alleged attackers-and an Arab Israeli have been killed in a wave of violence since the start of October.
*Israel denounced yesterday a European Union proposal to label products from Jewish settlements, saying it would damage the peace process with the Palestinians.
An EU decision on whether to require labelling on all products imported from Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Golan Heights is expected next week, media reported.
Speaking before a visit to Europe aimed at countering the move, Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said any such ruling would undermine the chances of peace negotiations.
The two sides have not talked peace for more than 18 months.
Hotovely told reporters during a visit to the Barkan industrial zone near the West Bank settlement of Ariel that she would visit Spain, France and Germany this week in a last-ditch bid to convince the EU to drop the proposals.
Hotovely, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party, said she considered the settlements a part of Israel so there was "no difference" between labelling products from them and other areas.
"Labelling, it is very clear to say, is the pure boycotting of Israel," she said.
"There are over 200 territorial disputes around the world. We don't see Europe has the motivation to inform the consumer in Europe on the other 200 areas. Europe is singling out Israel," she later told AFP.
3 years' minimum jail term for stone throwers
AFP/Jerusalem
Israel's lawmakers have voted to impose a minimum three-year jail sentence on stone throwers, the Knesset website said, weeks after the premier vowed "war" on those who pelt security forces with rocks.
The law was approved late Monday by 57 votes against 17 and comes as a surge of unrest in Israel and the occupied West Bank has entered its second month.
The new legislation was backed by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who declared "war" in September on stone throwers.
Netanyahu pledged tougher penalties after a 65-year-old Israeli died when he lost control of his car, with police saying the accident in East Jerusalem was caused by Palestinian stone throwing.
Since then Palestinian protesters have stepped up attacks with stones against Israeli security forces and civilians in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem.
The law adopted by the Knesset stipulates that judges would only be able to issue suspended sentences to stone throwers in exceptional circumstances.
It also adds rocks to the list of "harmful tools" in the country's penal code.
Those convicted would have their social security benefits cut off while in jail, as would the parents of minors convicted.
Right-wing lawmaker Nissan Slomiansky who presented the law said the measures were necessary to dissuade stone throwing which he described as "attempted murder".
"A minimum punishment is necessary to create a deterrent and uproot the assumption that 'it's just a stone'," said the MP who belongs to the religious Jewish Home party.
Jamal Zahalka, an opposition MP for the Joint List, a coalition of Arab-Israeli parties, denounced the law saying it would only add oil to the fire.
"Fires cannot be put out with gas, and this law is throwing gas on a fire," he said.
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