Arutz Sheva

In the 1970s an offshore radio station Voice of Peace was launched, broadcasting pacifistic messages. In response, Rabbi Zalman Baruch Melamed launched radio station Arutz Sheva in 1988, aimed at Israelis opposed to negotiations with the Palestine Liberation Organization. Based in Beit El, the station generated its broadcast on the Israeli airwaves from the ship MV Eretz HaTzvi in the Mediterranean Sea. It was one of the first Internet radio stations and was used as a beta tester for RealPlayer. From 1996 to 2002, Arutz Sheva broadcast in Russian. In 2003, Arutz Sheva ceased its radio operations after attempts to legalize it were unsuccessful.

In 2020, Reuters reported that Arutz Sheva along with Algemeiner, The Times of Israel and The Jerusalem Post had published op-eds written under a false identity. The supposed author, Oliver Taylor, was an "elaborate fiction".

Legal dispute

In February 1999, the Knesset passed a law granting a license to Arutz Sheva and absolving it of earlier illegal broadcasting, but this was appealed to the Supreme Court of Israel, which ruled the law null and void in March 2002. In October 2003, ten employees of Arutz Sheva were convicted of operating an illegal radio station during the period 1995–98, both from inside Israeli territorial waters and from Beit El. The defendants were fined and sentenced to 3–6 months of community service. The prosecution appealed, attempting to get heavier sentences, but were strongly criticized by the appellate court for their handling of the case, and the prosecution was told to drop the appeal or face an investigation into their conduct during the entire trial. Station director Ya'akov "Katzele" Katz was also convicted on two counts of perjury for having lied about the location of the broadcasts. In 2006, Katz was pardoned by President Moshe Katsav.