About
The Israel National News - Arutz Sheva media group includes an internet site with 24-hour news updates, as well as television broadcasts, radio, Jewish content, and sections on security, politics and diplomacy, children, tourism, sports, youth, health, and more.
Today, Israel National News - Arutz Sheva operates three websites with news and content, in Russian, English, and Hebrew.
Israel National News - Arutz Sheva’s internet site has its roots in the Arutz Sheva radio station, which broadcasted from the sea over twenty years ago. The radio station was founded at the end of the 1980s, by Rabbanit Shulamit Melamed, the wife of Rabbi Zalman Melamed, one of Religious Zionism’s leading rabbis, together with Yaakov (Ketzaleh) Katz and Yoel Tzur.
The radio station very quickly became an alternative to the other radio stations which existed then, which broadcast from the left side of the political map. Arutz Sheva broadcast not only interesting and up-to-date news, but also Torah classes and Judaism, alongside Hebrew songs, songs about our beautiful Israel, Hasidic and Mizrachi songs, and traditional Israeli songs, which were broadcast over the site and which appeared within a few years on all the radio stations.
The channel broadcast by means of the “Eretz Hatzvi” ship, which was anchored off of Tel Aviv’s beaches, just opposite leftist Abie Nathan’s radio station. (Nathan was later recognized for his activities in opposition to Arutz Sheva’s employees, who he persecuted for their activities.)
All attempts to have Arutz Sheva officially recognized as a legal radio station were in vain, since many in the judicial system saw the channel as a threat to Israel’s leftist government. Even a law by MK Zvi Hendel, which allowed Arutz Sheva’s broadcasts, passed in the Knesset but was thrown out by the nine Supreme Court justices.
At the end of 2003, the radio station ceased its operations after the Jerusalem Magistrates Court ruled that the channel was illegal and even levied heavy fines and jail sentences on its administration and broadcasters.
Even before it closed down, the channel began operating on the internet, and was one of the first news sites in Israel.
Today, Israel National News - Arutz Sheva is the largest and leading news site for the religious public, providing news, via journalists in Israel and abroad, 24 hours a day, until the start of Shabbat and from the moment Shabbat ends. The site operates with the aid of the Friends of Arutz Sheva Association.
In order to allow the spiritual message broadcast from the ship to live on, Israel National News - Arutz Sheva added another means of media: the Besheva newspaper.
Despite the site’s clear political beliefs, its policy is to allow freedom of expression to every Jew who wishes to voice his opinion. The site prides itself on uniting all stripes of the religious camp, despite the differences of opinion between them.
With the help of the Friends of Arutz Sheva Association, the site provides visitors with Torah classes, a variety of very successful children’s programs, trips and tours of Israel, columns on childrearing, and varied Jewish and Israeli music, and questions and answers on the issues of family and parenting.
Articles on a variety of subjects appear on Israel National News - Arutz Sheva’s English and Russian sites as well.
The Israel National News - Arutz Sheva studio and office is located in the Beit Hakerem neighborhood of Jerusalem, Israel.
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www.israelnationalnews.com
