Israel stunned by PM speech blackout

Mr Sharon lashed out at the allegations

Israel's Central Election Committee (CEC) will meet on Saturday to discuss its decision to cut short a broadcast by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Israel Radio has reported.

The embattled Mr Sharon was defending himself and his family against allegations of corruption in the live television speech on Thursday night.

Committee head Mishael Cheshin took the unprecedented step of ordering the broadcast stopped when he judged that Mr Sharon's comments became overtly political.

We have to stop broadcasting the speech immediately as the prime minister's comments amount to campaigning for the election

Israel Army Radio

Israeli political commentator Nahum Barnea said the blackout will go down in history.

"Shutting the microphone off on a prime minister can be called an historic incident," the Associated Press quoted him as writing in the daily Yediot Ahronot.

"His news conference yesterday will be remembered mostly because it wasn't broadcast."

Popularity plunge

The live broadcast was abruptly cut off early in Mr Sharon's speech, although he continued to deliver it.

"We are sorry to announce we have to stop broadcasting the speech immediately according to an order by the Central Election Committee chairman, Justice Mishael Cheshin, as the prime minister's comments amount to campaigning for the election," Army Radio said.

Let me state here clearly that I didn't know exactly how the money was collected

Ariel Sharon

Mr Cheshin ordered broadcasters to edit out the political content of Mr Sharon's speech before airing it, the Jerusalem Post newspaper reported.

The instruction cut Mr Sharon off in mid-sentence 10 minutes into his speech - ironically, the Jerusalem Post noted, just as he was getting to the allegations against him.

Mr Sharon - who is standing for re-election on 28 January - saw his popularity fall sharply after the liberal Israeli daily Ha'aretz revealed this week that the attorney general was investigating a $1.5m loan his family received from a friend based in South Africa.

The South African justice minister told the BBC on Friday that it would co-operate with Israel in investigating the loan.

Illegal contributions

Mr Sharon says there was nothing improper about the loan, although he admitted on Thursday that he needed the money to repay illegal contributions from his 1999 party leadership campaign.

I told my sons on my own initiative that all the money must be immediately returned to the donors without any delay

Ariel Sharon

"More than a year ago, the state comptroller discovered that contributions had illegally been made and informed me of this. I was amazed by these findings," he said.

"I... spoke to my sons. I told them on my own initiative that all the money must be immediately returned to the donors without any delay," he added.

"Let me state here clearly that I didn't know exactly how the money was collected. We spoke about mortgaging the [family] ranch and to the best of my knowledge, that was indeed done at the time. When I was asked about it by the police that is what I said," Mr Sharon said.

"I have nothing to hide," Mr Sharon said, adding that everything had been done "legally and properly".

Attack

He hit out against the rival Labour Party, accusing it of seeking to blacken Likud and his own family by "inventing lies and inflating gossip".

Mr Sharon said Labour's behaviour at such a critical time was "criminal" and "irresponsible".

Mr Sharon criticised Mr Mitzna's Labour party

The country's attorney general has confirmed that he is investigating the loan but criticised the leaking of word of the inquiry as politically motivated.

Campaign contributions from abroad are illegal under Israeli law.

Both Mr Sharon's Likud party and the Labour party requested that the CEC debate the decision to stop his broadcast.

Likud argues that the decision robbed Mr Sharon of the chance to defend himself against the corruption allegation, while Labour charges that Mr Sharon was using the media for party political purposes.

Israeli broadcasting law forbids "election propaganda" from being aired except in special slots for a month before elections.

Mr Cheshin - who opposes the law as being outdated - vowed before the campaign to enforce it rigorously to highlight its absurdity.