Communications minister urges IDF to cut off Haaretz after columnist calls general ‘war criminal’

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi calls the Haaretz newspaper “antisemitic” and urges the military to sever any links with the publication after one of its columnists called an IDF general a “war criminal.”

“The Haaretz newspaper continues to show its antisemitic, anti-Zionist face that incites against IDF soldiers,” Karhi writes on X.

Karhi’s post is accompanied by a screenshot of a headline from this morning by firebrand columnist Gideon Levy, who called Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth a “general of bloodshed” and a “war criminal.”

Bluth sparked controversy by saying a West Bank village would “pay a heavy price” after a resident committed a shooting attack.

IDF Chief Eyal Zamir has also spoke out in defense of Bluth. Karhi says the military should not “suffice with condemnations” and should cut off contact with Haaretz.

“It cannot be that senior IDF officers read the slime of Gideon Levy and other haters of Israel in the newspaper,” Karhi writes, urging Defense Minister Israel Katz and Zamir to “immediately cut off contact with the Haaretz newspaper.”

The controversy is playing out after, over the weekend, the army uprooted thousands of olive trees in the village of al-Mughayyir following the shooting attack last week by a resident of the village. A three-day curfew was also imposed on the area, lifted Sunday morning.

Bluth, visiting the scene last Thursday night, declared the village would “pay a heavy price” for the attack, language widely seen as implying collective punishment. In a clarification later, the IDF confirmed the uprooting but said it was an “operational necessity” to clear vegetation that had enabled the gunman to flee.

Karhi has led an effort to halt any state subscriptions or advertising in the left-leaning daily.