Israeli Government moves to Sanction Israeli Newspaper Haaretz and calls for Criminal Penalties against Israeli Journalists for Fair and Accurate reporting.
Not all who are Jewish or Israelis are pro-Genocide, and I think it’s important to make that point. You can actually read much better reporting from Israel than you can in the United States- for now.
Haaretz is the oldest newspaper in Israel, and the third-largest in circulation.
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Begun as a newspaper distributed free of charge to Jewish soldiers serving in the British army during World War I, Ha'aretz also sold copies to the population of Jerusalem and Jaffa in order to bring in extra revenue. In 1919, a third element entered the picture - the Zionist movement - which granted the newspaper a subsidy, thereby enabling it to pay writers a good wage. This triangular financial arrangement soon came to an end when the British army proposed selling the paper to the Zionist movement, an offer that became viable with the financial backing of a noted Zionist benefactor with publishing experience in Russia, Isaac Leib Goldberg (see article about him in Qesher No. 16). Shortening its name from Hadashot Meha'aretz ("News of the Land") to Ha'aretz, the Jerusalem-based paper was transformed from a military to a civilian publication, identifying itself as an independent enterprise belonging to Ha'aretz Company Ltd. Goldberg was the publisher, while the manager was another businessman with publishing experience from Russia, Solomon Saltzman.
Haaretz has been telling it like it is lately with balanced, accurate reporting of the news from Israel and Palestine. A few examples of the reporting of Hareetz are below.
Let us assume that Israel's position at The Hague is right and just and Israel committed no genocide or anything close to it. So what is this? What do you call the mass killing, which continues even as these lines are being written, without discrimination, without restraint, on a scale that is difficult to imagine?
Beyond the numerous and well-documented atrocities committed by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, some accounts from that day, like Otmazgin’s, proved untrue.
“It’s not that I invented a story,” Otmazgin told The Associated Press in an interview, detailing the origins of his initial explosive claim — one of two by ZAKA volunteers about sexual violence that turned out to be unfounded.
“I couldn’t think of any other option” other than the teen having been sexually assaulted, he said. “At the end, it turned out to be different, so I corrected myself.”
Gaza Division operations and airstrikes in the first hours of October 7 were based on limited information. The first long moments after the Hamas attack was launched were chaotic. Reports were coming in, with their significance not always clear. When their meaning was understood, it was realized that something horrific had taken place.
More and more countries are imposing them as the Gaza war continues, and the list risks growing to dimensions that could harm the Israeli economy. Many may not know that on Tuesday, Japan imposed sanctions on four Israeli settlers for violence against West Bank Palestinians.
Headlines have shifted to Iran, but Israel is still starving, bombing and expelling the population of northern Gaza. While Israeli society as a whole has activated its denial mode, the horrifying images – and the policy, statements and reality behind them – are causing some Israelis to protest war crimes, or even utter the word genocide.
It's a Tiananmen-like image. A convoy of armored Israel Defense Forces jeeps is moving rapidly along the main road, which is deserted. A child hides behind some garbage bins and occasionally throws a small stone at one of the passing vehicles, which continue on their way undisturbed. As the last jeep goes by, the boy throws one last stone, which most likely didn't even hit its armored flank, and in the next breath he is seen collapsing on the ground on his back.
It all hit the fan recently in Israel when government officials called for criminal penalties against Israeli journalists who report the truth. (Israel has already been assassinating Palestinian journalists). Middle East Eye reported it.
The publisher of the Haaretz news outlet has come under fire from the Israeli government after he referred to Palestinian "freedom fighters" during a speech in London.
Amos Schocken was speaking at a conference in London on Sunday when he made the comments, which have provoked calls from government ministers to clamp down on the outlet's activities.
"The Netanyahu government doesn't care about imposing a cruel apartheid regime on the Palestinian population," he told attendees.
"It dismisses the costs of both sides for defending the settlements while fighting the Palestinian freedom fighters, that Israel calls terrorists." …
Israel's Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi submitted a proposal on Thursday calling for a number of government restrictions on Haaretz as a result of Schocken's comments.
Amongst the new proposals issued by Karhi's office are that the government: "Shall not enter into new contracts with Haaretz, including individual subscriptions for state employees, nor renew any existing contracts; all current agreements with Haaretz, including personal subscriptions, will be cancelled as legally feasible."
It also said that the Government Advertising Bureau shall: "Direct Haaretz to cease all advertisements, including statutory notices, regardless of payment status, and seek refunds for any existing payments. No further ads shall be placed in the publication."
The proposal is identical to one issued by Karhi in November 2023, when he accused the outlet of undermining Israel's war efforts in Gaza.
Justice Minister Yariv Levin also sent a letter on Thursday to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miar requesting powers to restrict Haaretz's operations.
"I ask that you urgently provide me with a draft law stipulating that actions by Israeli citizens to promote or encourage international sanctions on Israel, its leaders, security forces, and citizens shall constitute a criminal offence punishable by ten years in prison," he wrote.
"I further request that such an offence during wartime be considered an aggravating circumstance, allowing for the penalty to be doubled."
Imagine for a second that the third-largest newspaper in the United States would generate headlines and balanced reporting like that. The top newspapers in circulation in the United States are:
Wall Street Journal
New York Times
New York Post
Washington Post
We in the United States are now faced with the undeniable reality that our media is controlled by Israel. In the FBI’s partially-declassified post-9/11 “Dancing Israelis” report, a member of Urban Moving Systems bragged that Israel would control the US media in 20 years and destroy the United States. Urban Moving Systems was an Israel front company involved in, at least, in the transportation of explosives used to demo the Twin Towers, and transportation of evidence to Pennsylvania used to create the appearance of the plane crash of Flight 93.
The New York Times has come under fire recently for denying journalists the opportunity to tell it like it is, like Hareetz is doing in Israel. The Intercept reported it.
THE NEW YORK TIMES instructed journalists covering Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip to restrict the use of the terms “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” and to “avoid” using the phrase “occupied territory” when describing Palestinian land, according to a copy of an internal memo obtained by The Intercept.
The memo also instructs reporters not to use the word Palestine “except in very rare cases” and to steer clear of the term “refugee camps” to describe areas of Gaza historically settled by displaced Palestinians expelled from other parts of Palestine during previous Israeli–Arab wars. The areas are recognized by the United Nations as refugee camps and house hundreds of thousands of registered refugees.
The memo — written by Times standards editor Susan Wessling, international editor Philip Pan, and their deputies — “offers guidance about some terms and other issues we have grappled with since the start of the conflict in October.” …
Almost immediately after the October 7 attacks and the launch of Israel’s scorched-earth war against Gaza, tensions began to boil within the newsroom over the Times coverage. Some staffers said they believed the paper was going out of its way to defer to Israel’s narrative on the events and was not applying even standards in its coverage. Arguments began fomenting on internal Slack and other chat groups.
That is what communist/zionist governments do. Shut down all opposing narrative, The true face of Israel is being revealed.
Thanks for the cross post because I got to add another newspaper to my collection. yew done gud!