Crackdown ordered on national Israeli newspaper

Jay Jackson
1 Nov 2024

TEL AVIV, Israel - Israel's oldest newspaper, Haaretz, founded in 1918, has been banned by three Israeli government ministries.

The newspaper which publishes across Israel in English and Hebrew, and is widely viewed online around the world, has come under attack from within following remarks by the newspaper's publisher and head of Haaretz Group, Amos Schocken. At a Haaretz conference in London last Sunday the publisher spoke in support of a two-state solution, which he acknowledged was opposed by the Israeli government.

"Israel has a government that opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state," he said.

"Instead, the Netanyahu government wants to continue and intensify illegal settlements in the territories that were meant for a Palestinian state. It doesn't care about imposing a cruel apartheid regime on the Palestinian population. It dismisses the costs of both sides for defending the settlements while fighting the Palestinian freedom fighters that Israel calls terrorists," Schocken said.

"Not only did they continue building settlements, but the present government also supports the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from parts of the occupied territories. In a sense, what is taking place now in the occupied territories and in part of Gaza is a second Nakba of sending and creating refugees, even people who lived in the occupied territories in Area C and the people who live in the northern part of Gaza," the Haaretz publisher said.

" Palestinian state must be established, and the only way to achieve this, I think, is to apply sanctions against Israel's leader, against the leaders who oppose it, and against the settlers who are in the occupied territories in contravention of international law."

"Zionism is still a justified idea for the Jewish people, but the conduct of successive Israeli governments has distorted its meaning beyond recognition. Israel needs to be put back on the right path, and unfortunately, the main way to do it, I think now, is by international pressure," Schocken added.

The Diaspora Affairs, the Economy and Industry Ministry, and the Education Ministry have all suspended agreements with Haaretz, and vowed the newspaper will get no cooperation from the respective ministries in the future.

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