Benjamin Netanyahu issued an order yesterday to shut down Palestine 48 television station just hours after a news conference was held in Nazareth to announce its launch. The station is affiliated with the official Palestinian television station Palestine, which focuses on Arabs living inside Palestine.
Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported that the Israeli prime minister, who is also the communications minister and the foreign minister, issued an order preventing the broadcast of the Palestinian channel through legal means. The launch of the channel was attended by Palestinian Communications Minister Riad Hassan.
Palestine 48 TV is the first satellite channel supervised by the Palestinian Authority which focuses on the affairs of Palestinians living in Israel. It was scheduled to go live on Thursday.
The total population in Israel is 8.345 million, of which 6.251 million – 74 per cent – are Jews. Palestinian Arabs make up 20.7 per cent, totalling 1.730 million. The population of non-Arab Christian Israelis is 364,000 according to this year’s official statistics.
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