Police question broadcaster who allegedly called for murder

JERUSALEM, March 7 (JTA) — Religious-secular tensions in Israel found a new battle front after a broadcaster on a pirate radio station allegedly called for killing the leader of the secularist Meretz Party. Knesset member Yossi Sarid received security protection after the broadcaster, Yisrael Bondak, allegedly made the remarks on the Jerusalem-area station Kol Hamizrach, or Voice of the East, which identifies with the fervently Orthodox Shas movement. The incident also reignited debate over whether the Knesset should legalize pirate radio stations. Bondak, who was summoned for police questioning Sunday for allegedly inciting to murder, told reporters that his statements had been taken out of context and that he was only making a Purim joke. “It was satire, for Purim,” Bondak said. His attorney, Reuven Yehoshua, accused the mainstream Israeli media of blowing the incident out of proportion. “If someone was to interpret it as inciting to murder, the media is 90 percent responsible, if not more,” Yehoshua told reporters. Police officials raided the studios of Kol Hamizrach in a Jerusalem neighborhood Sunday, confiscating microphones, antennae and a small transmitter. During a broadcast last Friday, Bondak allegedly said he was going to kill Sarid because the lawmaker loved the Supreme Court, but not religion. Bondak’s alleged remarks touched on the tensions between the fervently Orthodox community and the Supreme Court over recent court rulings favoring the liberal streams of Judaism. Jerusalem’s police chief, Yair Yitzhaki, said that after listening to a recording of Bondak’s broadcast, he believes there “are grounds” to the allegations against him. Kol Hamizrach, which has been on the air for seven years, is one of several stations that Shas is seeking to have included under a legislative amendment the Knesset passed last month to legalize Arutz-7, the pirate radio station operated by settlers. Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein staunchly opposes the amendment, which he considered a ploy aimed at sidestepping work by prosecutors to address the status of illegal broadcasts. Reacting to the alleged threat, Sarid called on law enforcement officials to take action. “If they do not act accordingly, the blood will be on their head,” he said.