New Delhi: Days after the International Criminal Court slapped an arrest warrant on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli government Sunday boycotted Haaretz, the oldest newspaper in Israel, in a move widely seen as an attempt to “destroy the free press” by taking a page out of the “authoritarian playbook”.
Haaretz has repeatedly been in the crosshairs of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government over its reportage, which has been critical of Tel Aviv’s conduct in the Gaza war over the last 13 months. One of the leading newspapers in Israel, it is also known for giving Palestinians space to have their views read across the country.
Announcing the boycott on Haaretz in a post on the social media platform X Sunday, Israel’s communication minister Shlomo Karhi wrote, “Stop funding Haaretz newspaper! Today, the government unanimously approved my proposal to end the contract with the Haaretz newspaper in any way and not to publish any publications in it.”
Now, Haaretz, widely known for its liberal leanings, will receive no advertisements from the government and is also facing cancellations of subscriptions by state agencies and employees.
The boycott comes mere months after the Israeli military raided and ordered the shutdown of Al Jazeera’s operations in the West Bank and half a year after Tel Aviv ordered the closure of the Qatari broadcaster’s operations across Israel.
On the boycott, Shlomo Karhi further wrote on X, “We will not allow a reality in which the publisher of an official newspaper in the State of Israel will call for the imposition of sanctions against it and will support the enemies of the state amid war and will be financed by it. 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.”
מפסיקים לממן את עיתון ״הארץ״!
הממשלה אישרה היום פה אחד את הצעתי להפסיק את ההתקשרות עם עיתון ״הארץ״ בכל דרך שהיא ולא לפרסם בו פרסומים כלשהם.
לא נאפשר מציאות שבה מו״ל של עיתון רשמי במדינת ישראל יקרא להטלת סנקציות נגדה ויתמוך באויבי המדינה בעיצומה של מלחמה ועוד ימומן על ידה.… pic.twitter.com/5x376M0vfq
— 🇮🇱שלמה קרעי – Shlomo Karhi (@shlomo_karhi) November 24, 2024
At an event in the UK on 27 October, Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken argued that establishing a Palestinian state was a must for ensuring the “security” and “survival” of Israel. “The only way to achieve this [establishment of Palestine], I think, is to apply sanctions against Israeli leaders who oppose it and against the settlers who are in occupied territories in contravention of international law,” Schocken said.
Facing criticism, Schocken later issued a clarification on his reference to Palestinian “freedom fighters”, saying he does not believe Hamas fighters are freedom fighters but stuck with the rest of his statement.
These comments, which included the accusation that Netanyahu’s government is “imposing a cruel apartheid regime” on the Palestinian people, apart from the Haaretz war coverage, are widely seen as having led to the boycott.
Haaretz, in a statement on X Sunday, said it would not be “deterred” by the boycott and would not turn into the “government’s message board”.
“The move to boycott the Haaretz newspaper, which was approved today at the cabinet meeting without legal advice, is another step in Netanyahu’s quest to crush Israeli democracy. Like his friends Putin, Erdogan and Orban, Netanyahu is also trying to silence an independent media that is critical of him,” the newspaper said in a statement.
המחטף להחרמת עיתון "הארץ" שאושר היום בישיבת הממשלה ללא ייעוץ משפטי הוא צעד נוסף במסעו של נתניהו לריסוק הדמוקרטיה הישראלית. כמו חבריו פוטין, ארדואן ואורבן, גם נתניהו מנסה להשתיק כלי תקשורת עצמאי וביקורתי כלפיו. ״הארץ״ לא יירתע ולא יהפוך לגוף שמפרסם דפי מסרים של הממשלה והעומד בראשה pic.twitter.com/gQ85OuCQki
— Haaretz הארץ (@Haaretz) November 24, 2024
Haaretz’s origins and Gaza war coverage
Haaretz has published investigations into the conduct of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) as well as offered a space for authors critical of Tel Aviv’s conduct of war in Gaza including Gideon Levy who has called Israel’s actions as “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians from the enclave.
“Day is night and night is day. Ethnic cleansing and mass murder are ideals, and war crimes create civilians who are better and more value-driven…In 2024 Israel, not only is there no hint of stocktaking regarding what its army has done in Gaza and Lebanon—we’ve grown accustomed to it—now they elevate crimes and brutality to the level of ideals,” wrote Levy in a piece published by the newspaper last week.
In another opinion published by Haaretz on 15 November, the author Ofri Ilany argued that Israel is perpetrating war crimes in Gaza, including the obliteration of the ancient city (Gaza) and carrying out “killing on an immense scale and trying to expel a population of an entire region”.
On 23 November, the newspaper carried an interview with Palestinian journalist Rami Younis, who co-directed the movie Lyd, which was censored in Israel. Titled ‘I would like for Israelis to understand that Zionism is Racism’ the article is one of Haaretz’s Essential Reads.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Monday called on the Israeli government to lift its boycott of Haaretz, labelling the actions as an attempt to “silence” the newspaper through hurting its “advertising and subscription revenues”. The CEO of CPJ Jodie Ginsberg in an article in The Forward, a newspaper for Jewish Americans, took aim at the boycott of the newspaper, terming it a page out of the “authoritarian playbook”.
Haaretz was founded in 1919 primarily by Russian Zionist immigrants in Jerusalem before it moved to Tel Aviv in 1922. In 1935 the paper was acquired by German businessman Salman Schocken, who had settled in Palestine. Amos, the current publisher, is his grandson.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is known to be obsessed with control over the media. This obsession has already led him into court on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three different corruption cases. This week, he embarked on another campaign to destroy the free press, a dangerous new phase in his plan to destroy Israel’s democracy and replace it with an authoritarian regime headed by himself,” said the newspaper’s editorial board Tuesday.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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