Protest group pays for all-black front-page ads in major Israeli newspapers

Several Israeli newspapers published an entirely black front page on Tuesday morning, following the passing of the Law to Cancel the Reasonableness Standard on Monday afternoon.

The pages were paid advertisements by the Israeli Hi-Tech Protest movement, a group containing representatives from hi-tech companies including CEOs, venture capital investors, self-employed entrepreneurs, and regular hi-tech employees. The ads read, “A black day for Israeli Democracy” in small white text at the bottom of the page. In the small text at the top was the word “Advertisement.”

Although all the newspapers involved – Yediot Aharonot, Calcalist, Israel Hayom, and Haaretz – disclosed the advertisement at the top of the page, some readers claimed that the text was too small and was not clear enough that the all-black front page was paid for.

The protest group itself posted on Twitter openly claiming the advertisement on Tuesday morning, saying: “They got us! We tried so hard to hide our logo, [it’s on] Page 2 of the newspaper.”

The Knesset passed the bill to cancel the reasonableness standard into law on Monday, marking the first part of the government’s contentious judicial reform to pass into law after six months of fierce public debate and negotiations on a possible compromise that continued until the last minute.

Passing the controversial bill

The opposition boycotted the vote, and the final tally was 64-0. Every member of the coalition voted in favor of the bill.

“We are now heading to a long recess,” Justice Minister Yariv Levin (Likud) said in the Knesset plenum after the bill passed. “I am setting out, knowing that we passed an important bill, but with no gloating and with a true wish to bring all parts of the nation together.”

Eliav Breuer contributed to this report.