As is well known, my interest in the work of Abe Nathan and his Peace Ship dates back to the late 1960s. This article focuses on the year 1982. The content is an adaptation of a chapter from the book *The History of The Voice of Peace*, published in the Netherlands in 1992.
In January of that year, I wrote, amongst other things, about Nathan, who announced at the end of December 1981 that he would be suspending broadcasts of The Voice of Peace, which indeed took place on 1 January 1982. The reason was that Nathan did not consider it responsible to risk the lives of his volunteers during the winter months. Nathan also stated in a press release that he had not been granted permission to moor the broadcasting ship at a quay in the port of Tel Aviv.
On 24 December 1981, the ANP reported that private radio stations were being permitted in Israel. This was announced at the time by the Israeli Ministry of Transport. From that moment on, the same was also possible for private television stations. It was added, however, that the regulation would initially only apply to the distribution of signals via cable and that reception would require a subscription.
The then Prime Minister, Begin, had long wanted his own radio station with the aim of broadcasting propaganda, something that was not possible for political parties via the country’s state radio and television. Furthermore, the workforce of the autonomous state radio and television service was dominated entirely by the Labour Party, which was in opposition at the time.
The broadcast ship was now moored a mile off the coast of Israel, off the beach at Tel Aviv, where the broadcasts continued. Loudspeakers had been placed on the deck so that people on the beach could hear the programme clearly. They would have preferred the ship to come even closer, but Nathan did not dare, as the navigation equipment was not working properly and he was afraid the broadcast ship might run aground. The broadcasts continued until seven o’clock in the evening.
On 8 January 1982, the broadcast ship entered the port of Ashdod for necessary maintenance and to dispose of excess waste. After the maintenance period, the ship was anchored in the bay near Ashdod, where it would remain for weeks.
On 12 January, there was yet another extensive debate in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, regarding the Ministry of Communications’ proposals to grant a licence to the VOP. The minister responsible, Mordecal Zippori, stated that a completely new version of the Broadcasting Act needed to be drafted, in which any organisation would be granted the right to obtain a commercial licence, naturally subject to strict conditions. Nathan, who had held several discussions with the minister and had assumed that a licence would be granted to the VOP, was thoroughly dismayed.
“I have worked with Zippori on a very confidential basis up to now and assumed that a decision would be made. His new proposals mean that we will have to fight all over again, even though we have proven ourselves over many years. I have no intention of getting down on my knees once more and begging for a licence.”
Abe Nathan, who had previously demonstrated a knack for juggling figures, added: “Over the past month, we have recorded a loss of 21 million guilders. We have lost all our advertisers. We had to pay as much as 2 million in salaries, mooring fees, oil, water, etc., whereas, had the government made a decision sooner, this money could have been used to help people in emergency situations.”
Abe had previously stated that if no licence were to be granted, the station would be closed down for good: “I think we will be bankrupt within a week, partly because I have already had to dip into the funds that were available for charitable causes. Perhaps there is still a small Chance. Now that the government and parliament have decided to draft a new version of the Broadcasting Act, they might grant us a temporary licence in the meantime.”
On 26 January 1982, the outlook for Nathan seemed to brighten when a special committee submitted proposals to the Knesset, the Parliament, under which Nathan would be granted permission to continue broadcasting VOP from a port. The condition, however, was that the broadcasts could only be directed at Israel. Furthermore, they would come under the supervision of the Ministry of Communications and be permitted to broadcast advertisements. Understandably, Nathan had no interest in this, given that the VOP’s aim had always been to bring the message of peace to all countries in the Middle East.
Completely illegally, on 27 January 1982 from the bay near Ashdod, and thus well within national waters, a test signal was broadcast via FM with the aim of finding out how far inland this signal would reach. They passed through the whole of Tel Aviv and the surrounding area, the signal passed through without any problems. The following day, the crew and DJs set about a new task. The large quantity of sand, over 100 tonnes, which had previously been loaded into the broadcasting ship as ballast, was dredged out on the grounds that, should a licence be granted, it would be easier to beach the ship on Tel Aviv’s shore.
Not everyone was convinced that Nathan’s idea of beaching the ship permanently would succeed. The Dutch captain, Aaldijk, was convinced that the ship would break in two on the first attempt to beach it. It would take until 5 February to remove all the sand from the broadcast ship’s hold. On 1 February 1982, a representative of the coalition party stated that there was little chance of a licence being granted to the VOP, given that significant opposition was expected during an initial vote on the proposals in the Knesset.
Likud representatives, in particular, felt it was unreasonable for Nathan to earn huge sums without the Israeli public broadcaster being able to share in the profits. On 9 February 1982, everything seemed to be going well during the first round of voting on the legislative amendments. With 32 votes in favour and 11 against, this round was passed. It was already late in the evening when the vote was held, which was clearly evident from the number of MPs present. The question, however, was how the final vote would go if all members were present.
In mid-February, it was announced that a final decision regarding a possible licence for the VOP to operate on land would be taken on 16 February by Prime Minister Begin. Immediately after this announcement, a press conference was organised at which Abe Nathan once again stated that he no longer wished to put the lives of his crew members at risk in the harsh winter: “Since 1973, we have done an awful lot of good things with the station. Not only have we provided radio programmes, but we have also brought flowers to the warring peoples, transported the wounded from Lebanon, sailed through the Suez Canal, and so on. In August last year, I made the first attempts to obtain a temporary onshore licence for the winter months. The Minister for Communications stated that if Begin were to give me permission, I could return to him to finalise the matter. From that moment on, I was sent from pillar to post, and the strange thing is that the Minister for Communications has always been positive about the plans towards me, but radically opposed to them in the Knesset.”
Eventually, Nathan announced that on 18 February, the VOP would broadcast its final programmes for good, from a location off the coast of Tel Aviv, and that the following day the ship would sail into port.” On the evening of 18 February, the crew received a phone call from Abe in which he said he would be coming on board the following day. He did not tell them why he was coming, but they suspected that he wanted to sail the ship into international waters once again to resume broadcasting there. At half past ten on 19 February, the anchor was indeed weighed, and the broadcasts were then resumed in international waters. Abe himself appeared at the microphone at 5 o’clock in the afternoon to tell listeners that he was leaving and would try to work for peace in Ireland.
The DJs on the ship then told him that the MOA was in force in Northern Ireland, but Abe argued that the situation was quite different with the VOP, given that broadcasts would be provided via the Peace Ship. “I am ready to depart from this anchorage to bring my ideals of peace to other peoples. Perhaps it would be wise to start producing programmes in international waters off the Northern Irish coast. I am leaving for Belfast this week to explore the possibilities. However, this does not mean I am emigrating permanently. If the new plans prove unfeasible, I can always have the broadcasting ship sunk off the coast of Tel Aviv.”
Nathan also stated that, if he could not find enough people in Ireland for his new project, the idea was to remove all broadcasting and studio equipment from the ship and sell it, with the proceeds going to charity. “The ship naturally belongs here, where it has carried out all its peace missions. However, we will not sink the MV Peace but give it a royal burial, and that in the very same place where it has been at anchor all these years, right here where I am speaking to you now. It will then form a part of this region forever. I will miss you all. Good night, we loved you then, we love you now and will always love you.”
At nine o’clock in the evening, the broadcasts were suspended. In the programmes, the DJs and Abe called on listeners to come to ‘Kings of Israel’ Square the following day to protest against the Knesset’s refusal to grant him a landing permit. Abe had previously demonstrated his ability to organise mass demonstrations, and the police, having been informed that the people were once again being called upon to demonstrate, set off in a boat towards the broadcasting ship to take Abe away for questioning at the station, as he was organising a demonstration without the authorities’ permission.
The following morning, the anchor was weighed once more and the broadcasting ship set sail for Ashdod again. The DJs then left for Tel Aviv and, to their surprise, 3,000 supporters of the station were already gathered in the aforementioned square to voice their protest. Reports appeared in many newspapers, both national and international, the following day. The Jewish Chronicle carried an article on 20 February explaining why the Orthodox party Agadut Israel opposed a legislative amendment that would prevent the VOP from obtaining a licence: “The station is not an Israeli station at all; there is not a shred of Jewish content in its programming.
It broadcasts only the worst cultural programming available in the country. Under no circumstances should the government grant a licence to this individual, especially as he has, through the station, violated the Sabbath silence, week in, week out, year in, year out. Had the amendment to the law been passed, the coalition within the government would undoubtedly have collapsed, leaving the country once again without a government.”
A day later, Abe flew first to London and then on to Ireland for a meeting with Peace Campaigners, to find out what they thought of his new plans. Buck, the technician, went on a job interview that same day, as he was convinced that the station would now definitely disappear from the airwaves. The very next day he returned on board with the news that he had got the job, without mentioning what he would be doing.
On 23 February 1982, Kol Israel reported that there was still a chance for the VOP, as a number of MPs wanted Nathan to remain in Israel and for the station to return to the airwaves. A day later, the crew members and DJs on board received word that Abe had held talks with representatives of both Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland and that they fully supported the idea of anchoring the Peace Ship off the country’s coast, which, according to Abe, could be done without any problems.
On 1 March, Nathan, having returned from Northern Ireland, explained his plans to the DJs but also stated that the station would first return once more off the coast of Israel until the Israeli troops had withdrawn from the Sinai. The crew were instructed to prepare the ship for its ‘new’ task. On 4 March, the ship left the bay off Ashdod to take on water, oil and food in the harbour. On 7 March 1982, at half past eight in the evening, the broadcasting ship set sail for the open sea once more.
Two days later, they were back on air to broadcast programmes 24 hours a day. However, they regularly experienced transmission failures due to problems with the remaining Rolls-Royce generator. The Allis-Chamler generator had been taken ashore in Ashdod for maintenance.
The account of the first weeks of 1982 concerning Abe Nathan and the Voice of Peace provides a wonderful insight into how, during the thirty years that the radio station was on air, they experienced the usual ups and downs and, above all, had to deal with a capricious Abe Nathan.
Hans Knot 2026.