MK Regev and defense minister in spat over reform of Galgalatz radio station
Ya’alon: Nobody interferes in the Army Radio playlist
By LIDAR GRAVÉ-LAZIUpdated: NOVEMBER 6, 2015 05:13Likud Ministers Moshe Ya'alon and Miri Regev(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev slammed Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon on Thursday over his interference of a Galgalatz radio station reform, which would push the station to include more Israeli artists and Mizrahi music on its playlist.“I understand the defense minister seems to have forgotten that the IDF is the army of the people,” Regev said at a press conference she called to address the issue.Earlier on Thursday, reports surfaced that Ya’alon decided to put a stop to any reform of the radio station, forbidding meetings on the issue between the culture minister and Yaron Dekel, head of Army Radio.According to Regev, however, the defense minister was involved from the get-go and had initially supported her efforts to reform the station, even sending a representative to meetings with the radio station, only to suddenly backtrack on his support.“Army radio is an elitist station, it is no secret,” she said.“The decision of the defense minister shows that he is not sensitive to the public and to the calls from the Israeli public.”“With his statement, he is backing Yaron Dekel and Galgalatz to continue with a playlist which only represents one branch of Israeli music and to continue to present a social barrier that basically strengthens what the public thinks – that Galgalatz is an elitist station,” she said.A senior source close to the defense minister told The Jerusalem Post, “The defense minister allowed the culture minister a meeting with head of Army Radio, Yaron Dekel, so that she could present her arguments regarding the playlist. Once it crossed the line from expressing an opinion to intervention in the station, the defense minister stopped the matter immediately and instructed the staff of Army Radio not to hold meetings on the matter.“It is important that Army Radio staff be attentive to public sentiments and hear a variety of opinions and so the defense minister agreed to hold a meeting on the matter, but Minister Regev will not configure the playlist,” he added.The Post also learned that in closed meetings Ya’alon said, “Nobody interferes in the playlist of Army Radio. I don’t interfere, and nobody else will interfere. I trust the judgment of the producers and the head of the station of Army Radio.”
He added, “Let her do her political rounds on someone else, not on us. She can shout until tomorrow. In what goes on at Army Radio, Minister Regev will not intervene... let her search for headlines somewhere else.”At the press conference, Regev insisted she would not back down and said she had garnered the support of MK Ya’acov Margi (Shas), chairman of the Knesset Education, Culture and Sports Committee.“We will hold a discussion with representatives from Galgalatz in the committee,” she announced.“I will not rest until Galgalatz will be a multicultural station that grants expression to every genre in society,” she said at the press conference. “It is a public station which