The station has offices in East Jerusalem, but broadcasts from Ramallah in the West Bank.
Managers of the station, unique for its willingness to talk to far-right Israelis as much as to militant Palestinians, have been in regular contact with the Communications Ministry over the past seven years, said the Jewish co-director Mossi Raz, who insists that he has never in that time been told to seek an Israeli licence.
"It is a political decision," said Raz, a former politician with the left-wing party Meretz. "I am very concerned. There is no democracy here. People think that democracy is only the right to vote, but it's not only that. You cannot have democracy without freedom of the press."
He added that he is preparing to challenge the decision in court.
Danon, an outspoken right-wing politician who complained about the station to the Attorney-General two months ago, claimed credit for the station's demise.
"A radical leftist station that becomes an instrument of incitement must not be allowed to broadcast to the public," Danon said.
He reportedly objected to presenters encouraging Palestinians to demonstrate in support of an independent state. Raz, who was unsure if the station's presenters had made such a call, challenged the view that there was anything wrong with it.
"Is this incitement?" he said.
The decision to close the station comes as Israeli journalists grapple with what they perceive as intensifying efforts by the Government to muzzle criticism, both in the media and more widely through proposals to broaden the libel law, limit foreign funding of left-wing NGOs, and move control of Supreme Court appointments from an independent panel to Parliament.
On the media front, the focus has centred on independent television station Channel 10, which faces imminent closure. The state reportedly offered to allow the channel to delay payment of debts owed to it if it fired the reporter responsible for an investigation into the funding of private trips made by Netanyahu before becoming Premier.
Critics say such moves are part of a wider trend to skew coverage more favourably towards Netanyahu.
- Independent