{"id":281475,"date":"2024-12-02T12:00:39","date_gmt":"2024-12-02T12:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=281475"},"modified":"2024-11-28T08:58:51","modified_gmt":"2024-11-28T08:58:51","slug":"netanyahus-boycott-of-haaretz-wont-stop-us-reporting-the-grim-truth-about-israels-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/12\/netanyahus-boycott-of-haaretz-wont-stop-us-reporting-the-grim-truth-about-israels-wars\/","title":{"rendered":"Netanyahu\u2019s Boycott of Haaretz Won\u2019t Stop Us Reporting the Grim Truth about Israel\u2019s Wars"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Aftermath of Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, 26 Nov 2024.
Photograph: Adnan Abidi\/Reuters<\/p><\/div>\n

Unlike most Israeli news outlets, my paper shows the suffering in Gaza and Lebanon. That\u2019s why the government has targeted us.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

26 Nov 2024 <\/em>– Truth is the first casualty of war\u201d goes the old cliche, but like any other adage, it holds a grain of verity. Battlefield reporting is always challenging: you are hampered by limited access, mortal danger, deliberate fog, and officials who get away with being less than truthful. And it becomes even more complicated when the journalists are part of a belligerent society, especially if the fight enjoys wide popular support as a just war.<\/p>\n

On 7 October 2023, Israel was attacked by Hamas, invading from Gaza to kill, loot, rape and kidnap civilians and soldiers. The next day Hezbollah joined the fray from Lebanon. Israel fought back with a vengeance, depopulating and destroying the Gaza Strip towns and villages, killing many civilians along with Hamas militants and operatives. In September 2024, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a counteroffensive<\/a> on the northern front, delivering a crippling blow to its arch-rival Hezbollah and razing the Shia villages that served as its frontline bases.<\/p>\n

Overwhelmed by the enemy\u2019s surprising attack and Hamas atrocities, the Israeli Jewish public united in overwhelming support for what appeared to be an existential fight against diehard, merciless enemies. This attitude prevails well into the war\u2019s 14th month, despite the rising number of IDF casualties and the ongoing failure to achieve the \u201ctotal victory\u201d promised by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The public attitude has dictated the boundaries of news coverage in mainstream Israeli media: show no mercy to the other side. Most news outlets don\u2019t air the killing, destruction and human suffering in Gaza and Lebanon. At most, they quote international criticism of Israel\u2019s actions, framing it as antisemitic and hypocritical. Gaza and Lebanon are seen only through the lenses of embedded reporters within the invading IDF units.<\/p>\n

The embodiment of wartime news coverage is Danny Kushmaro, a news anchor at Channel 12, Israel\u2019s largest TV network. Joining an infantry force in Lebanon last month, a helmet-clad Kushmaro blew up a house<\/a> in an occupied Shia village while boasting: \u201cDon\u2019t mess with the Jews.\u201d When the international criminal court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, Kushmaro reacted emotionally on primetime TV<\/a>, surrounded by pictures of the dead and kidnapped kids of 7 October, saying the warrants were \u201cagainst all of us, our soldiers, this people, this country\u201d. Kushmaro, and his colleagues on air, never bothered to explain the factual basis behind the ICC accusations<\/a> of deliberate starvation as a method of warfare and other crimes against humanity, allegedly ordered by Israel\u2019s leaders.<\/p>\n

Israel has a military censor, and each news story about national security or intelligence must get their clearance. Censorship is a nuisance, but in wartime, the statutory constraint and filtering pales in comparison to the self-censorship of the audience. Israelis simply don\u2019t want to know.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Haaretz<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
\u2018Almost always alone, Haaretz has been reporting for decades on the suffering of Palestinians under Israeli occupation.\u2019<\/span> Photograph: ifeelstock\/Alamy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Almost always alone, Haaretz has been reporting for decades<\/a> on the suffering of Palestinians under Israeli occupation and on what the IDF considers the \u201ccollateral damage\u201d of fighting terrorism. Time and again, the newspaper has been castigated for criticising the morality of IDF actions. Readers have cancelled their subscriptions, and politicians rallied against us. But we never budged. When you see war crimes, you must speak out while the war is raging, rather than wait until it\u2019s too late to make a difference. The 7 October war is no different: alone again, we report on the other side of the conflict, despite the difficulty of accessing sources in Gaza or Lebanon, while also embedding our reporters with the IDF like other media.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu has never liked our critical stance towards him and his policy of occupation and annexation, calling Haaretz and the New York Times \u201cthe greatest enemies of Israel<\/a>\u201d in 2012 (though he later denied it<\/a> ). Having built his career on media manipulation, Netanyahu can\u2019t stand independent, critical voices. In the previous decade, his abuse of state power to twist media coverage, exposed by Haaretz in 2015, led Netanyahu to the dock in a still-pending criminal corruption trial<\/a>. But even after his indictment, he only changed the tactics, not the strategy, borrowing from the successful playbook of his Hungarian friend and mentor Viktor Orb\u00e1n: attack the mainstream media as hostile, have your billionaire supporters launch supportive channels, build a \u201cpoison machine\u201d to unite your base across social networks. Over time, the mainstream would shift its stance, adding the leader\u2019s mouthpieces to primetime panels, fearing the loss of viewers to the no-holds-barred Channel 14, Israel\u2019s Fox-on-steroids<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu is a divisive figure, and the Israeli Jewish public, while united behind the war, is deeply split between pro- and anti-Bibists. But Netanyahu is using the external fighting to justify silencing his domestic critics. Shortly after 7 October, communications minister Shlomo Karhi, a crony of the prime minister, submitted a draft cabinet resolution to boycott any government advertising or subscription to Haaretz, citing the paper\u2019s \u201canti-Israel propaganda\u201d. Initially blocked by the justice ministry, Karhi has relaunched his plan to undercut Haaretz, using the pretext of controversial remarks<\/a> by our publisher Amos Schocken.<\/p>\n

Last Sunday, the Haaretz boycott resolution, now sponsored by Netanyahu, passed unanimously in cabinet. For good measure, Karhi also launched a bill to privatise Israel\u2019s public broadcaster, which has acted as a thorn in the government\u2019s side, in contrast to its array of media mouthpieces. \u201cWe\u2019re elected by the public, and we can enact regime change if we want,\u201d he said<\/a> of his boss\u2019s deeper motive. The boycott of Haaretz lacks a legal basis, but Netanyahu couldn\u2019t care less: if it\u2019s struck down, he would launch a tirade against \u201cthe legal deep state\u201d and its undermining of his rule. And he bet right on opposition leaders who, adhering to nationalist-militaristic fervour, refrained from standing by the paper.<\/p>\n

But we will prevail over the recent Netanyahu assault, just as we prevailed over his predecessors\u2019 anger and shunning. Haaretz will stand by its mission to report critically on the war and its dire consequences for all sides. The truth is sometimes hard to protect, but it should never be the casualty of war.<\/p>\n

_____________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Aluf Benn is the editor-in-chief of <\/em>Haaretz. Formerly, he was the Israeli daily newspaper’s diplomatic editor.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original – theguardian.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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