In reaction to comments made by the publisher of Haaretz, Israel’s government approved a proposal put forward on Sunday by Communications Minister, Shlomo Karhi, to suspend government advertising and end all contact with Haaretz.
The liberal-positioned Haaretz, Israel’s oldest newspaper, has been a constant critic of the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, notably its response to the 7th October Hamas terror attacks and subsequent military operations in Gaza. The paper regularly offers space for pro-Palestinian views and, as a result, has faced repeated censorship calls from right-wing politicians.
Individual government ministries had begun suspending links with the publication in response to comments made by the newspaper’s publisher, Amos Schocken, in a speech delivered in London at the end of October. His remarks called for sanctions against the Israeli government, which he described as imposing a “cruel apartheid regime” on Palestinians.
Schocken was also heavily criticised for referring to “Palestinian freedom fighters that Israel calls terrorists” – remarks that he subsequently attempted to clarify.
An editorial published in Haaretz the following week entitled “Terrorists Are Not Freedom Fighters,” said that Schocken was referring to “Palestinians living under occupation and oppression in the West Bank,” but that his clarifications had not gone far enough.
“Any organisation that advocates the murder of women, children and the elderly is a terrorist organisation, and its members are terrorists. They certainly aren’t ‘freedom fighters,'” said the publication.
Despite the attempt to distance the paper from Schocken’s comments, Minister Karhi said Israel “will not accept a situation in which the publisher of an official newspaper calls for the imposition of sanctions against it and supports its enemies in the middle of a war. We advocate a free press and freedom of expression, but also the freedom of the government to decide not to fund incitement against the State of Israel.”
WAN-IFRA has grown increasingly concerned by the Israeli government’s attempts to stifle critical reporting of its military operations. The deliberate targeting of journalists, an increase in military censorship, and the continued denial of entry to Gaza for foreign reporters has seriously undermined the country’s claims as well as its standing in global press freedom rankings.
Additionally, attempts to reshape the media landscape in the image of the current governing coalition have seen the ultra-conservative Communications Minister initiate a series of policy decisions that, according to RSF, are “augmenting pro-government coverage of the news.” A law banning foreign media outlets deemed threatening to national security, a bill that would tighten government control over public television budgets, and the addition of a private pro-government channel on terrestrial television exempt from licensing fees all point to a shrinking, more restrictive media space.
The proposal aimed at Haaretz, passed unanimously and, according to reports, without undergoing the customary legal review, called for all current agreements with the publication (including personal subscriptions) to be cancelled. The Government Advertising Bureau was directed to “cease all advertisements… regardless of payment status, and seek refunds for any existing payments. No further ads shall be placed in the publication.”
In passing the resolution, the government called on “all its branches, ministries and bodies, as well as any government corporation or body funded by it not to have contact with the Haaretz newspaper in any form and not to publish any publications in it.”
According to reports, the proposal “is identical to one issued by Minister Karhi in November 2023,” when he accused the outlet of undermining Israel’s war efforts in Gaza.
Haaretz has described the move as an attempt to “silence a critical, independent newspaper.”
“We stand with Haaretz in its attempts to convey the tragic reality of war in Gaza to the Israeli public and in its resistance to this unprecedented government pressure,” said WAN-IFRA’s Press Freedom Executive Director, Andrew Heslop.
“The atrocities committed against the Israeli people on 7th October do not give Israel’s leaders carte blanche to reject accountability and act with impunity, whether that be through deliberate targeting of journalists, or the reactionary sanctioning of a private media organisation. The independent press is crucial – more than ever during wartime – to ensure the public’s right to know: how else are they to understand what is being carried out in their name? Without critical voices there is simply no democracy. We call for the sanctions against Haaretz to be immediately rescinded.”