Senior Arab-Israeli journalists argue that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who also heads the Communications Ministry, is not limiting himself to trying to weaken the Israeli media outlets that broadcast in Hebrew, but is also trying to harm Arab-Israeli journalism as well.

“We are very concerned about Netanyahu’s steps to dismantle the new Israel Broadcasting Corporation, and know that it won’t end there. We are the next in line,” a senior journalist from the Arab sector tells Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. The journalist explains that while written journalism in Arabic and the influential, popular Arabic radio station Radio al-Shams, which reaches the Northern District, have always enjoyed full freedom of the press, the future of these media outlets is now unclear. Netanyahu’s goal, he argues, is to scare the Arab press into enabling government control of its content “that does not toe the line of the Zionist narrative.”

Radio al-Shams station manager Sohail Karem was summoned last week for a hearing before the Second Authority for Television and Radio, the public authority that supervises commercial broadcasting in Israel. Karem was told that the government plans to establish an additional Arab-language radio station in Israel’s Northern District. This means that the new radio station will compete with Radio al-Shams for a slice of the already shrunken publicity pie. This could well be the death blow to a popular station that, according to Second Authority polls, has high ratings among Arab-Israelis.

The prime minister’s divide and conquer tactic against the Israeli media is no secret to the station's higher-ups, who keep a close, concerned eye on Netanyahu’s attacks, especially on the electronic media. Netanyahu, who insists on keeping the media portfolio to himself, plans to split the commercial television Channel Two in the coming year. Through this move, the two franchisees (Reshet and Keshet, who now broadcast alternately) will each broadcast 24/7 on separate channels, with the extra costs of full-time broadcasting and separate news divisions while neither is in great financial shape.