From the Liveblog of
Sunday, November 24, 2024
Government says it’s severing ties with Haaretz after publisher called terrorists ‘freedom fighters’
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
In response to recent comments made by Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken referring to Palestinian terrorists as “freedom fighters,” the government announces that it is severing all ties with the left-wing newspaper.
Communications Ministers Shlomo Karhi’s office states that the cabinet unanimously approves his proposal to cut off all advertising and announcements of government tenders both in the printed edition and on the Haaretz website.
The resolution states that while the government supports a free press and freedom of expression, it “will not accept a situation in which the publisher of an official newspaper calls for the imposition of sanctions and against it and supports its enemies in the middle of a war.”
As such, the government will “sever any advertising relationship with the newspaper Haaretz and calls 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,” it adds.
In a statement, Karhi’s office says that the decision to boycott the left-leaning daily follows “numerous articles that damaged the legitimacy of the State of Israel in the world and its right to self-defense” and in particular Schocken’s comments during a conference in London last month.
In his remarks, Schocken stated that “the Netanyahu government doesn’t care about imposing a cruel apartheid regime on the Palestinian population. It dismisses the costs to both sides for defending the [West Bank] settlements while fighting the Palestinian freedom fighters that Israel calls terrorists.”
He said the only way to establish a necessary Palestinian state is “to apply sanctions against Israel, against the leaders who oppose it, and against the settlers” — prompting calls by multiple ministers to impose a boycott.
Haaretz later attempted to distance itself from Schocken, publishing an editorial stating that “any organization that advocates the murder of women, children and the elderly is a terrorist organization, and its members are terrorists. They certainly aren’t ‘freedom fighters.'”
