Offshore radio arrived in Israel in 1973 when peace campaigner Abie Nathan established his radio station, the Voice of Peace, to promote peace and the end of conflict in the middle east. For many years his was the only offshore station serving Israel, but it was joined in 1988 by a professionally run station, Arutz Sheva, promoting traditional Hebrew music with religious and ‘nationalistic’ talk programmes.
Then in the early to mid 1990’s a number of smaller offshore stations appeared off the coast. Some of these were landbased pirates who as an elaborate 'cover' claimed to be operating from offshore bases while others did establish transmitters on board ships, but openly relayed their programmes from landbased studios. A few others, tired of the repeated raids on their landbased premises, did actually move away and broadcast from an offshore base in the generally accepted manner.
From the point of view of offshore radio history this situation in Israel has made it difficult to distinguish between what were true offshore stations and what were simply cover operations for landbased pirates.
Some of the ship-based stations which were located inside territorial limits and/or the ones which openly relayed their programmes from landbased studios have blurred the once clear distinction between true offshore broadcasters and landbased pirates. However, it has been possible to identify a number of stations which broadcast to Israel from ship-based facilities, although not all appear to have been from international waters.
In this Gallery you can find out about the main Israeli offshore broadcasters as well as those others who did use a ship to house their transmitters. Follow these links for information about each of the offshore stations which operated off the Israeli coast:-
Gallery
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Unfortunately because of the unusually secretive nature of many of these stations, in particular those which were in essence landbased pirates, a lot of the usual information has proved difficult to find.
If you can help fill any of the gaps the Museum would very much like to hear from you!
In addition to the stations which did broadcast there were often plans for stations which never materialised or only lasted a very short time - days or even just a few hours.
Click on the blue arrows to read more.
Broadcasting Authority stations
Odelia TV and other TV stations
Floor 1
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Broadcasting Authority stations
At one time Broadcasting Authority Ltd. (operators of Radio One) was rumoured to have a second offshore radio station off Eilat on Israel's southern coast which had to close because the ship kept drifting into Egyptian territorial waters. There were apparently plans to relocate the vessel to a position off Tel Aviv from where 60% of Israel's population could be reached, but this idea never came to fruition.
The company was also said to be involved in negotiations with two religious parties in the Knesset, Israel's Federation of Trade Unions (Histadrut) and a daily newspaper to operate various other offshore radio stations on their behalf.
Odelia TV and other TV stations
In 1981 an offshore TV station -Odelia TV - appeared off the coast of Israel and for a short time transmitted television signals to the Tel Aviv area.
The Voice of Peace and Arutz Sheva also announced plans to launch television channels, but neither of these plans came to fruition.
Full details of Odelia TV and the other planned television stations can be found in the Offshore TV Gallery on Floor 2
