Voice of Peace

Voice of Peace (Hebrew: קול השלום, Kol HaShalom) was an offshore radio station that broadcast in the Middle East for 20 years from the former Dutch cargo vessel MV Peace (formally MV Cito), anchored off the Israeli coast in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The station's American PAMS, CPMG, JAM, and TM Productions jingles, English-speaking DJs, and Top 40 hits attracted many advertisers.

John and Yoko Lennon signed hundreds of peace posters which Abie Nathan could sell in hard times.

During the mid-1970s, the station boasted more than 20 million listeners from the Middle East to southern Europe and Turkey, thanks to the format used by professional broadcasters led by Keith Ashton.

The MW signal was broadcast from a centre-fed horizontal antenna slung between the fore and aft masts, a design similar to those used by Radio Veronica and later Laser 558.

In 1985, Keith York's repair of the combiner enabled the two Collins units to be run together again, resulting in a large mailbag from Turkey, Crete, Greece, and Cyprus, areas the Voice of Peace message hadn't reached for nine years.

The telephone forum chaired by Abie Nathan called "Kol Ha Lev" (Voice of the Heart) and then Ma La'asot?

The Voice of Peace was tolerated by the Israeli Government, as Abie Nathan was a personality in the country; however, the IBA was alarmed at its popularity and set up a state-run pop service, Reshet Gimel, in May 1976.

Nathan decided to intentionally sink the ship in international waters on November 28, 1993 after promises of a broadcast license and mooring in Jaffa port failed, and he closed the station due to heavy losses and following the signing of the Oslo peace accords, which he assumed was validation of the station's mission.

The presenters on the final day included Nathan Morley, Matthew French, Bill Sheldrake and Clive Sinclair.

Abie Nathan, founder of the radio station Voice of Peace
The helm of the peace ship - one of the only items left from the ship from which the Voice of Peace was broadcast (currently displayed in the Hashomer Hatzair archive, Yad-Yaari in Givat Haviva , Israel ).
Memorial plaque to "The Voice of Peace" at Tel Aviv's Gordon Beach