Ministries cut ties with Haaretz over 'apartheid' allegations

At least three ministries announced on Thursday that they would end all cooperation with the Haaretz newspaper, following allegations voiced this week by its publisher and head of Haaretz Group, Amos Schocken. He said Israel’s rule in the West Bank and Gaza is a “cruel apartheid regime” over Palestinians, called Palestinian terrorists “freedom fighters,” and called for sanctions against Israel’s leaders.

The three ministries were the Diaspora Affairs Ministry, the Interior Ministry, and the Education Ministry. Later on Thursday, they were joined by the Economy and Industry Ministry. 

The Diaspora Affairs Ministry’s director general, Avi Cohen-Scali, asserted that the ministry, along with the Bedouin Authority, which is also under its auspices, “will suspend all existing agreements” with Haaretz and halt any future partnerships with the organization.

In a letter dated October 31, 2024, Cohen-Scali condemned Schocken’s statements, saying they included “extreme, baseless, and false statements, positioning [Haaretz] alongside the central drivers of delegitimization” against Israel. He further wrote that calling “those who killed, raped, and butchered our people freedom fighters” was “false, outrageous, and severe” and “words of incitement straight out of the playbook of the greatest enemies of the State of Israel.”

Zero tolerance

The Diaspora Affairs Ministry decision, which is responsible for countering the delegitimization of Israel, reflects a zero-tolerance approach toward entities, including media outlets, it believes undermine the nation’s legitimacy. The ministry’s statement emphasized that no cooperation or publications would occur with organizations that accuse IDF soldiers of “heinous actions,” marking a strong rebuke to what it viewed as internal opposition to Israel’s image on the global stage.

The Interior Ministry and Education Ministry announced on Thursday that they were taking similar steps. The Education Ministry director-general wrote in a letter that Schocken’s comments “contradicted the values of the education ministry.”

Schocken’s comments came during opening remarks at a Haaretz conference in London on Sunday.

He began by arguing in favor of the two-state solution but argued that this wasn’t happening since “Israel has a government that opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state.

“Instead, the Netanyahu government wants to continue and intensify illegal settlements in the territories that were meant for a Palestinian state. It doesn’t care about imposing a cruel apartheid regime on the Palestinian population. It dismisses the costs of both sides for defending the settlements while fighting the Palestinian freedom fighters that Israel calls terrorists,” Schocken said.

He argued that Israel was ignoring UN resolutions declaring settlements illegal.

“Not only did they continue building settlements, but the present government also supports the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from parts of the occupied territories. In a sense, what is taking place now in the occupied territories and in part of Gaza is a second Nakba of sending and creating refugees, even people who lived in the occupied territories in Area C and the people who live in the northern part of Gaza,” Schocken said.

He added that “a Palestinian state must be established, and the only way to achieve this, I think, is to apply sanctions against Israel’s leader, against the leaders who oppose it, and against the settlers who are in the occupied territories in contravention of international law.”

“Zionism is still a justified idea for the Jewish people, but the conduct of successive Israeli governments has distorted its meaning beyond recognition. Israel needs to be put back on the right path, and unfortunately, the main way to do it, I think now, is by international pressure,” Schocken concluded.

Asked for comment, Schocken said to The Jerusalem Post that he preferred not to respond but added that “it is clear that I was not referring to the events of October 7.”

Justice Minister Yariv Levin wrote a letter to attorney-general Gali Baharav-Miara later on Thursday, requesting that she compile a law proposal that will criminalize actions by Israelis to “promote or encourage applying international sanctions on Israel, its leaders, its security forces, and the citizens of Israel,” with a ten-year jail sentence, which will be doubled in wartime.