In light of events in the Supreme Court on Monday, 18 Menachem Av regarding the petition to save the ‘nayis’ chareidi phone services, there will be a void in the chareidi community as tens of thousands have become accustomed to dialing the nayis numbers numerous times daily for information.
Amid the realization that most nais phone lines will cease to operate in less than two weeks, there are already efforts underway towards the return of pirate chareidi radio. These pirate stations were closed in the past but it is likely some will return as a result, providing music as well as hourly news and original content, similar to the licensed sectoral stations including Kol Chai, Kol Berama Radio in the chareidi tzibur and Galei Yisrael, with the latter serving the dati leumi tzibur.
Kikar Shabbos News quotes a “senior personality in the nayis world” saying “The High Court of the State of Israel wishes to silence the voice of the chareidi tzibur and we are left without an alternative other than to broadcast via the internet and radio and most nayis new reporters today are expected to join this effort in the chareidi community to broadcast in the new format so the public does not have to phone the ‘1-900’ numbers”, which are quite costly.
In the past, relevant state agencies have cracked down on all pirate radio stations, not necessarily just in the chareidi sector, as they often interfered with air traffic controllers and emergency agencies.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
2 Responses
A non-zionist hareidi station might be able to arrange to broadcast from Jordan or Egypt.
One should also note, that in western democracies, minorities don’t need to rely on “pirate” or “underground” radio to communicate.
I usually sympathize with the Israeli Chareidim, but this is just ridiculous. Nobody is trying to “silence the voice of the chareidi tzibur”; they just made a simple, common-sense change to the convoluted way the Israeli telecommunication market was run.
I quote a previous YWN article:
The way nayis lines operate in Israel, the operator of the service makes a profit from the cellular telephone provider, not from phone subscribers. The cellular telephone reform that was implemented by then Communications Minister Moshe Kahlon in the 18th Knesset changed the reality for the nais line operators. The reform brought an end to subscribers paying for talk time as well as the charges to subscribers for ‘crossing over’ from one cellular provider to another. The subscriber paid for talk time and cross-over fees and the money was divided among cellular providers and this was the source of profit for the nais lines.
Since all of this came to a change in 2012, a new reality exists today and while subscribers are not charged for connecting to another provider, there is still a fee when a conversation goes from one company system to another, and the data phone line providers, nayis lines, use this as the basis for their profit today. Today most of the nais providers use the smallest cellular companies they can find, thereby ensuring most incoming calls are rerouted from another cellular provider and thereby incurring charges, which generate their profit.
– See more at: http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/331397/supreme-court-decision-will-compel-the-closure-of-nayis-phone-lines-in-israel.html#sthash.RGCm9Etj.dpuf