Israel Matzav

LATMA to live another day due to IBA foul-up?

You will recall that my friends at LATMA were forced to shut down because of budget issues. Now, they may get a new lease on life because Israel's publicly financed Leftist media has overstepped its boundaries.

LATMA seemed to be in perpetual negotiation with Channels 1 and 2 for a position on the air. Now Channel 1 may have no choice but to broadcast LATMA because it broadcast something that broke all the rules of media bias in public broadcasting.

A new ad for a parody program on Israel Channel One has rightwing Israelis up in arms. The ad connects the Israeli right in general with Yigal Amir, who is serving a life sentence after being convicted of murdering Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin in 1995, and with Baruch Goldstein, who killed 29 Arabs at the Machpelah Cave in 1994.

The ad shows men dressed up as Amir and Goldstein, and a third man portrayed as Yona Avrushmi, who threw a hand grenade into a crowd during 1983 rally, killing 36-year old activist Emil Grunzweig. The three are seen dancing and singing, with lyrics roughly translated as “sometimes I am a hero and sometimes I am a murderer. Sometimes I am an assassin and sometimes I am a slaughterer. But no matter what, I am always a right wing murderer.”

Channel One is the television station of the state-run Israel Broadcasting Authority. Each year, Israelis who own a television set must by law pay a hefty fee to finance public broadcasts; the law allows the IBA to seize property and freeze bank accounts in order to force Israelis to pay their bill.

As a public broadcaster, the IBA must follow a very precise set of rules and regulations to ensure that it provides an outlet for all segments of the population, and to ensure that all points of view are represented. Recently, for example, the IBA refused to air satirical pieces produced by the Latma group, claiming that it would be unfair to show one point of view in satire – that of the right-leaning Latma group – without having a leftwing counterbalance.

In this case, however, there was no balance for the anti-right message of the commercial, and no right-wing program or satire is scheduled to air in the near future to balance the satirical left-wing content the IBA is presenting.

As a result of showing the ad for the new parody, the IBA may be required to broadcast LATMA. 

Zelig Rabinovich, a senior aide to the Director-General of the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA), told Arutz Sheva, Sunday, that the authority is considering broadcasting the right-wing satire Latma, which otherwise stands to disappear for lack of funds. Rabinovich said the authority would broadcast a satire called Hayehudim Ba'im (The Jews Are Coming), although a sketch portraying right-wing murderers would be pulled as was a promo for the sketch, following a report by Arutz Sheva.

In addition, following contact by Member of Knesset Ayelet Shaked (Habayit Hayehudi-Jewish Home-New National Religious Party) to Communications Minister Gil'ad Erdan and the IBA, the authority is seeking clarifications about the video, in which three men sing and dance as Yigal Amir - convicted assassin of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Yona Avrushmi - convicted of killing Emil Grunzweig by throwing a grenade at a Peace Now rally, and Baruch Goldstein, who killed 29 Muslims in the Me'arat Hamachpelah Cave of the Patriarchs.

I searched in vain for that anti-Right sketch on YouTube and elsewhere. If anyone has it, please send it by email.

Labels: Israeli Left, Israeli media bias, LATMA

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:52 PM