Israel averts government crisis with compromise on public broadcaster
Published March 30, 2017
The compromise deal was reached Thursday after more than a week of fears that Netanyahu would dissolve the government over the controversy and move to new elections.
Under the compromise, the new Israel Broadcasting Corp., or Kan, will begin broadcasting on April 30 as scheduled, but without a news division. The news division will be spun off to a new entity staffed by workers from the old Israel Broadcasting Authority who would have lost their jobs to Kan, which was supposed to be more politically independent than the IBA.
David Bitan, the chairman of the ruling coalition, said in November that Kan had already been “hijacked by people whose agenda is leftist and anti-government.”
Legislation approved in 2014 launched the new broadcaster.