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Haaretz newspaper sold and silenced
(Courtesy Ed Corrigan)Â Here is some information that I received from a list that I am on that originates in Israel. It is not yet confirmed.
According to this report a new German owner has purchased Haaretz and a “Putsch is being carried out among reporting staff,” in the most important and Liberal Zionist paper in Israel. The paper frequently allowed journalists critical of the Israeli Occupation to publish articles that exposed the reality of the Occupation to be exposed to the Israeli population and was circulated around the World. I repeat that this information has not yet been confirmed. If true, it is most disturbing. Haaretz was one of the few decent things in the Israeli media and showed that in Israel, there was some respect for freedom of the press and critical discussion. It reminds me of when Conrad Black bought the Jerusalem Post and hired an Israeli censor to be publisher. The decent journalists all quit in protest, including Benny Morris back when he still had a moral conscience.
It reflects a more disturbing trend. Norman Finkelstein was recently denied entry into Israel and the West Bank. I also saw one reference that reported that Bishop Desmond Tutu was denied entry into Israel but that information is not confirmed. I know of at least two instances where prominent Palestinian journalists were denied exit Visa’s by the Israelis to leave the Occupied Territories to go on speaking tours. Also a group of Palestinians students from Gaza were recently denied exit visas to attend American Universities after they has won Fulbright Scholarships from the American Government. It appears that the Israelis are closing down many if not all of the sources of critical information coming out of Israel. The hypocracy of it all is that Israel complains that when the British Academic Union proposes a boycott of Israeli academic institutions as a way to pressure Israel and to protest Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians the Israelis start to scream that the proposed boycott is a violation of freedom of speech and a violation of academic freedom. Israeli authorities have been crushing academic freedom and free speech for Palestinians, and even Israeli critics, for decades. Israel does not want its own population and the rest of the World to know what it is doing to the Palestinians.
Ed Corrigan
Subject: PUTSCH BEING CARRIED OUT AMONG REPORTING STAFF AT HAARETZ NEWSPAPER NOW!
[There goes what was left of freedom of the press in Israel. I think those of us with subscriptions to Haaretz based on its special reporting not found in other mainstream newspapers will need to immediately cancel our subscriptions. Since these reporters are now being cut back or fired for no legitimate reason, it is time for citizens to act. The Hebrew version below says Amira Hass has been shunted off to a year’s unpaid sabbatical, with her position afterwards totally unclear. Meron Rapaport has simply and quietly been fired. Twilight Zone, Gideon Levy’s regular Friday column, did not appear Friday.
Who are the new German owners, pray tell? The ‘sin’ of Haaretz is that it had too many reporters who were still too independent. This deserves making as big as stink as possible!!!!!!!!!! - Elana]
I had a conversation with Akiva Eldar, who mentioned that the new owners (German) had carried out a rough, sittingroom survey that revealed that “the occupation doesn’t sell newspapers” and they are therefore concentrating on the business world (ie. The Marker). Thus, Amira is freelance / on half salary, Meron has been fired, Akiva has lost at least one half page a week… The best solution seems to be to find someone to buy the newspaper. And to start a campaign to stop subscribing, etc.
Matthew Brett is the Canadian Dimension weblog manager. The views expressed on this blog do not necessarily represent his own. Read more by Matthew Brett.
Considering the Israeli government’s reluctance to allow the world to know of it’s treatment of the Palestinians, the loss of the Haaretz newspaper is tragic. That it is now owned by German publishers is even more tragic. The firings and leaves forced on good journalists is another travesty. For shame!
#1. Posted by Hank Silver on November 22nd 2008 at 2:06pm