In recent years, Channel 14 has become one of the most visited channels: today it is the informal propaganda organ of the Netanyahu government
In recent months, a television station in Israel that was marginal in the national media landscape until a few years ago has become increasingly influential. The station is called 14ערוץ, channel 14, is known for its radical positions and is very close to Israel’s extreme right. Viewership has increased sharply in recent years, coinciding with the increasing polarization of political debate in Israel, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has the most right-wing leader in the country’s history in government.
Canale 14 was born less than ten years ago as a small niche channel for the dissemination of Jewish culture and immediately turned to political topics: Today, due to its content and style, it is one of the most visited private channels in Israel and is considered a propaganda organ for Netanyahu himself. The polarization of the Political debate in Israel has also intensified following the serious political crisis triggered by the government’s proposed reform of the justice system, which provoked enormous protests from the opposition and civil society.
On several occasions, Canale 14 guests and journalists have explicitly reiterated the positions of the Prime Minister and the far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties that support him. Not long ago, an analyst defined the judges of the Supreme Court of Israel as a group that aims to “create a fascist oligarchy”: The Court takes very critical positions on judicial reform, which wants to strip away its powers and entrust them to the government is seen by many as a threat to democracy because it virtually eliminates any counterweight to the power of the incumbent government (Israel has no constitution and the Supreme Court represents an important counterweight to the government’s power).
Canale 14 broadcasts accused the judiciary of seeking to carry out political persecution against the government, described the very large protests in Israel against the reform as a dangerous subversive action and gave rise to various conspiracy theories, including the fact that the protests were initiated by the US -CIA secret service was financed and supported. In general, Canale 14 journalists have openly claimed to represent right-wing positions close to those of the government: Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler of the Israeli research center Israel Democracy Institute described the channel’s programming as “very one-sided.” “It doesn’t even appear to be balanced: there is no commitment to the facts and there is no excuse for the lies.”
The channel has been gaining visibility and influence for several years, but in recent months ratings data has increased significantly, in some cases surpassing that of the main state broadcasters.
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Canale 14 was launched in 2014 under the name Canale 20 and won a tender from the Israeli government to create a “Jewish Heritage Channel”. Since then, the channel’s main shareholder has been Yitzchak Mirilashvili, an Israeli billionaire and entrepreneur of Russian origin and one of the co-founders of VKontakte, the main Russian social network. Mirilashvili’s father, Michael, is a Russian-Jewish billionaire who is very close to Netanyahu.
At the time of its creation, the cultural organizer was not allowed to broadcast news and bulletins on television due to current regulations, but it immediately tried to do so and was sanctioned by the authorities. In 2016, the channel finally received a license to broadcast news: even then, Channel 14 was referred to in local newspapers as “Israel’s Fox News” (Fox News is one of the most conservative channels in the United States, which is very close to the positions of the former president comes). Donald Trump).
A first turning point for the growth of the channel and its audience came in 2018, when the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, passed some rules that allowed the channel to broadcast news and political programs without time limits. The second turnaround in 2021 was instead made possible by the economic resources of Mirilashvili, who acquired the broadcast rights of his programs on Channel 14 instead of the commercial television Channel 20 for the equivalent of over 1 million euros, hence the current name Channel 14. The channel’s new location brought him closer to very popular stations such as 11, 12 and 13, giving the programs on air a larger audience and more credibility.
From its inception, Channel 14 targeted a conservative and traditionalist audience: ultra-Orthodox Jews, Netanyahu voters, settlers occupying the Palestinian territories in the West Bank, among others. The proximity to a traditionalist audience was also created through very specific editorial decisions: unlike many other Israeli television channels, Canale 14 does not actually broadcast its programs on Shabbat, the holy day for people of the Jewish religion.
Benjamin Netanyahu (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
According to data cited by the Times of Israel, the network’s share of Jewish viewers rose from less than 1 percent to more than 7 percent over those nine years. The moments in which the channel seems to be most popular are when it deals with political issues and the most controversial and contentious news, such as those related to the conflict with the Palestinians. The station’s most popular program is called I patrioti, a live talk show with guests and journalists commenting on current events.
In recent months, Canale 14’s style has attracted a lot of attention. Last June, for example, among the guests invited during one of the broadcasts was Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak, who falsely accused the founders of the socialist Mapai Party, which dominated the first half of Israel’s political history and is considered the forerunner of the current Labor Party for having participated in the deportation of Jews to Nazi concentration camps.
About a year ago, the station was accused of offering some members of the Likud Party, Netanyahu’s party, positive and sympathetic reporting in exchange for money. On another occasion, a report broadcast on the station was sharply criticized for using a biblical verse to encourage listeners to “rejoice” over the death of Israeli-Arab politician Said al Harumi and accusing him of being a supporter of “terrorists ” to be. Palestinians. On another occasion, a journalist from the station complained live that there had been few deaths in an armed attack on a town inhabited by Israeli Arabs.
Part of the station’s success is also due to the advertising that some right-wing politicians do for it. Shuki Tausig of the progressive Israeli magazine The Seventh Eye told the Times of Israel that the channel was receiving “crazy publicity” on social media from Netanyahu and his ministers. Channel 14 is also one of the few Israeli channels where Netanyahu agrees to interviews: according to a study by Seventh Eye, he has already given 14 interviews from October to today. In many other cases, Netanyahu has refused interviews with Israeli television channels, claiming that the media was carrying out political persecution against him.
Following this rhetoric, Canale 14 presented itself as an original and credible alternative to a left-wing media landscape described as excessively uniform and conformist. Orly Goldklang, deputy editor of the conservative newspaper Makor Rishon, said Channel 14 quenched a “real thirst for media alternatives” to mainstream channels and networks. According to her, this need was met precisely during the protests against judicial reform, when, apart from Canale 14, which was pro-government, “everyone else on TV was in favor of the protests”.
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