Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi (Likud) seeks to sanction the Haaretz daily, he told Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs in a letter on Thursday.
“Since the beginning of the war, my office has received many complaints about Haaretz taking a harmful direction that undermines the war’s objectives and weakens the military effort and our social resilience,” wrote Karhi. “It’s possible that some of its articles even cross the legal line in the sections of the Penal Code that are unique to wartime.”
Karhi went on to explain that much of the paper’s funding comes from ads and subscriptions purchased by the government.
“Ending the purchase of services from Haaretz by government bodies will lessen the severe harm that the citizens of Israel feel, not only from the paper’s content but also by the fact that they are forced to fund it with their taxes,” he continued.
Among the content that Karhi condemned were articles that accused Israel of crimes against humanity in Gaza, compared October 7 to “the decades-long routine of Palestinians,” and more.
Targeting Haaretz for incitement
“During this difficult time, the Israeli government approved emergency regulations against foreign channels that harmed national security, used its authority against the Lebanese Al-Mayaden, and began a similar process against the Qatari Al-Jazeera,” wrote Karhi. “It’s inconceivable that while we act against foreign publications, an Israeli paper continues to be mostly funded by the Israeli public while it spreads incitement from Israel’s enemies.”
As such, Karhi proposed that the government end all relations with Haaretz, including public servants’ personal subscriptions, stop paying for ads and get refunded for future planned ads, block payments to the paper, and end all communication with the paper and any affiliated publications.
The Union of Journalists in Israel immediately spoke out against Karhi’s plan.
“The communications minister has lost his north,” said the union in a statement. “Karhi, who has spent most of his short-term failing in his attempts to close the public broadcasting corporation (Kan), has decided to focus on a new target.
“His new suggestion of stopping governmental relations with Haaretz is a populist proposal devoid of any feasibility or sense. Its entire objective is to gain likes in his political base on the backs of moral journalists who have been working day and night to report on the war.”
The Journalists’ Association of Jerusalem also condemned the proposal, calling it petty politics. “We can only note that every media company in Israel has the right to exist according to law without being placed under economic siege because of the opinions it publishes,” they said in a statement. “It was so before his term as the communications minister, and so it will be after it, too.”
Labor MK Gilad Kariv claimed that the government would never approve the proposal. “However, in the current reality, he and his friends will do everything to keep the hate machine in high gear,” he said.