Goldknopf Threatens to Block Broadcasting Bill Unless Sabbath and Content Limits Are Written In

United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf told the Knesset Communications Committee on Sunday that his faction will oppose the broadcasting reform unless it explicitly bans a government broadcasting app from operating on Shabbat and Jewish holidays, and prohibits sexual, pornographic, missionary, and violent content.

Goldknopf said the bill, as currently drafted, still falls short despite amendments already added. “There is no need for partial reductions, no need for restrictions on one content or another, and no need for vague wording,” he said, arguing that a state-funded app active on Shabbat would mean, “in practice, increasing Shabbat desecration under state auspices.” He said his demand is that the app “not be active at all on Shabbat and on the festivals of Israel.”

On content restrictions, he insisted the law must name what is forbidden now, not leave the matter to later regulations or committees. “If we know today what is forbidden, it must be written into the law today,” he said, warning that anything left unwritten may never be included. “Legislation cannot be based on promises and expectations.”

Committee chair Galit Distel-Atbaryan of Likud told him that much of what he was demanding had already been inserted into the bill, but Goldknopf remained unconvinced. He said he still did not hear that the issues had been fully resolved and argued that the law must preserve “the values of the State of Israel.”