Israel’s Cabinet unanimously voted Sunday to boycott the country’s oldest newspaper, Haaretz, citing its critical coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict and comments by the outlet’s publisher calling for sanctions on top government officials.
In a statement on Sunday, the office of Shlomo Karhi, the communications minister, said that his proposal against Haaretz had been unanimously approved by the other ministers.
“We 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,” the statement said.
The proposal will end government advertising in the left-leaning newspaper, owned by the Schocken family, and cancel all subscriptions for state employees and employees of state-owned companies.
“We advocate a free press and freedom of expression, but also the freedom of the government to decide not to fund incitement against the state of Israel,” the statement from the communications minister’s office also said.
Widely respected internationally, Haaretz has been critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his current rightwing coalition government. The newspaper has also provided critical coverage of the Israel-Hamas war and investigated abuses allegedly committed by the Israeli military.
In a statement on Sunday, Haaretz accused Netanyahu of aiming to “dismantle Israeli democracy.”
“Like his friends Putin, Erdoğan, and Orbán, Netanyahu is trying to silence a critical, independent newspaper. Haaretz will not balk and will not morph into a government pamphlet that publishes messages approved by the government and its leader,” the statement said.
To justify the government’s boycott of Haaretz, the office of Karhi, the communications minister, pointed to comments made by Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken at a news conference organized by the newspaper late last month in London.
In the speech Schocken called for international sanctions on Israeli leaders. He also accused the Israeli government of “imposing a cruel apartheid regime on the Palestinian population” and said it was “fighting the Palestinian freedom fighters, that Israel calls terrorists.”
Following pushback, Schocken clarified that he was not referring to Hamas but rather was referring to Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli government has faced criticism over its press freedom record throughout the Israel-Hamas war, which has been the deadliest on record for journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ.
As of Monday, at least 137 journalists and media workers have been killed in the war, including 129 Palestinians, two Israelis and six Lebanese, according to CPJ data.
On top of that, Israeli authorities shuttered Al Jazeera’s West Bank bureau in September and Israel offices in May.
Officials said the closings were needed because Al Jazeera was a threat to national security. Press freedom groups rejected those claims as false.
Last week, Israeli lawmakers voted to extend the law’s duration to six months, and increase the law’s main provision — a broadcasting ban on any foreign media outlet deemed detrimental to national security by the security services — from 45 days to 60.
“Netanyahu’s government is openly targeting media independence and pluralism in Israel,” Anne Bocande, editorial director at Reporters Without Borders, said in a statement last week.
“The free press in a country that describes itself as ‘the only democracy in the Middle East’ will be undermined,” Bocande added.
