Haaretz has criticised Israel’s conduct throughout the war in Gaza on multiple occasions [Getty/file photo]
Israeli government officials will no longer communicate with leading newspaper Haaretz or place any advertisements after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved of a proposal put forward by the country’s communications minister.
In a statement posted on X on Sunday, Shlomo Karhi said the government unanimously approved his proposal to “end contact with Haaretz in any way and to not publish any articles” in the newspaper.
Karhi, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party and a supporter of the ongoing war against Gaza, accused the newspaper of “incitement against the State of Israel”, in his statement.
He said Israel “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 in the midst of a 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 Israel,” he added.
The move came after Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken made remarks at a London conference earlier this month calling the Israeli government an “apartheid regime”, and Palestinian fighters “freedom fighters”.
Schocken, however, later clarified his comments, and stressed that he did not refer to Hamas in his remarks.
Haaretz, which is known for its left-wing and liberal stances, condemned the decision.
“The opportunist resolution to boycott Haaretz, which passed in today’s government meeting without any legal review, is another step in Netanyahu’s journey to dismantle Israeli democracy,” it said in a statement.
Haaretz, since the start of the war in Gaza, has published a number of articles criticising Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip.
Earlier this month, it published an editorial accusing Netanyahu of “carrying out an ethnic cleansing campaign operation” in northern Gaza, which has been under an intensified siege and offensive since early October.
It has also published multiple op-eds describing Israel’s actions as genocide, and war crimes.
Both of these accusations have been denied by the Israeli government, despite mounting international criticism.
Haaretz has also published harrowing testimonies concerning abuses carried out by Israeli soldiers against Palestinian detainees at the Sde Teiman detention centre.
The newspaper, however, has also platformed anti-Palestinian, pro-settler and right-wing politicians and figures.
Karhi approached the cabinet secretary last year with a draft resolution to cease the Government Advertising Bureau’s publications in the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz said, and to put an end to all subscriptions to the newspaper by state employees.
Karhi has a track record of imposing sanctions and bans on media. Earlier this year, the communications minister banned the broadcasting of Qatar’s Al Jazeera and Lebanon’s Al Mayadeen on “security grounds”, accusing them of “inciting violence and terrorism”.
