Haaretz editorial says paper’s publisher was wrong to say terrorists are ‘freedom fighters’

The Haaretz daily seeks to distance itself from controversial remarks made recently by its publisher that referred to Palestinian terrorists as “freedom fighters” and caused multiple government ministries to cut their ties with the left-wing newspaper.

In his remarks, made last week at a Haaretz conference in London and circulated on social media in a video apparently compiled from several excerpts from his speech, publisher Amos Schocken was seen saying: “The [Benjamin] 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.”

In a subsequent clarification, Schocken said his wording should have been different and added that “as for Hamas, they are not freedom fighters.”

Now, in an editorial titled “Terrorists are not freedom fighters,” Haaretz says that both Schocken’s initial remarks and his clarification are wrong.

“The fact that he didn’t mean to include Hamas terrorists doesn’t mean that other terrorist acts are legitimate, even if their perpetrators’ goal is to free themselves from occupation,” it says.

“Deliberately harming civilians is illegitimate,” it adds. “Using violence against civilians and sowing terror among them to achieve political or ideological goals is terrorism. 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.’

“Throughout history, nations have waged armed struggle against oppressive occupiers to liberate themselves and achieve independence; not every armed struggle is terrorism. But the term ‘freedom fighter’ has a positive, even romantic, connotation, which could lead people to support illegitimate acts of violence. Those should be unacceptable in any way, shape or form.”