NEW YORK, May 9, 2012 (WAFA) – The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on the Israeli Minister of Communications Moshe Kahlon to return broadcast equipment his ministry and the Israeli army had seized during a night raid at the Ramallah-based Wattan TV in February, a CPJ press release said on Tuesday.

In a letter the New York-based Committee sent to Kahlon, CPJ said it was “deeply concerned by the confiscation of equipment and archives.”

Israeli soldiers raided Wattan TV and al-Quds Educational Television, a subsidiary of Al-Quds University, both based inside the Palestinian-controlled city of Ramallah, seizing transmitters, computers, personnel files, and other equipment.

The equipment was funded in large part by U.S. agencies, including the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Middle East Partnership Initiative, a fund controlled by the U.S. State Department, said CPJ.

More than two months after demanding that the Israeli Ministry of Communications return the seized equipment, the ministry continues to hold it threatening Wattan TV of financial ruin if it was not returned, it added.

Israel claimed that the station frequencies interfered in airline communications, a claim strongly denied by the station managers and the Palestinian Authority.

“The confiscation appeared to go well beyond issues related to broadcast frequencies,” said CPJ.

“We urge you (Kahlon) to return all seized equipment to Wattan TV immediately and allow the station to resume operations without interference,” said the letter signed by Joel Simon, CPJ Executive Director.

M.S.