A new local radio station that is supposed to serve the residents of Judea and Samaria – an area known in Hebrew by the acronym Yosh – has changed its name from Radio Yosh to Radio Israel. The change was approved by the Council of the Second Authority for Broadcasting, but has raised the ire of government-run Voice of Israel radio, which says it is too similar to its name.

Moti Shklar, Director of the Broadcasting Authority which is in charge of the Voice of Israel, said Wednesday that he will use all his power to stymie the change, which he said misleads the public because of the similarity of the new name to that of the country-wide state-run radio.

"To our great surprise you began using the name 'Radio Israel' today as the name of your station,” Shklar wrote to the station's managers. “You are thus damaging the name of the Voice of Israel.” Noting that the first broadcast on the Voice of Israel was the signing of Israel's Declaration of Independence, Shklar said that “using the name Radio Israel as the name of a local station... constitutes an appropriation of the reputation and intellectual property of the Voice of Israel.”

Radio Israel was the winner of the tender for local broadcasting to the residents in Judea and Samaria. The change in the station's name is seen as surprising because it contradicts the name and the content subject matter that were presented in the tender. These emphasized the residents of Judea and Samaria, and reports on matters that concern the Jewish population in the mountainous heartland of Israel.