Israel’s government approved on Sunday a proposal by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi that mandates any government-funded body refrain from communicating with Haaretz or placing advertisements in the paper. The proposal was approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The decision, according to the government’s explanation, is a reaction to “many articles that have hurt the legitimacy of the state of Israel and its right to self defense, and particularly the remarks made in London by Haaretz publisher, Amos Schocken, that support terrorism and call for imposing sanctions on the government.”
The proposal did not appear on the government’s agenda published ahead of the weekly cabinet meeting. The Attorney General’s office, unaware of the intention to bring the proposal to a vote, did not review it at all and did not present its opinion, as customary. The resolution was presented to ministers during the discussion without any legal opinion.
In a speech at the Haaretz conference in London last month, Schocken said “the Netanyahu government 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.”
I broadly agree, but the language of the original article is what I objected to:
That language clearly implies that the label “terrorist” is invalid.
EDIT: Just to clarify. We’ve seen this many times before.
The Muhajadeen who fought so hard to free Aghanistan from the Soviet Union had a just cause, and they were certainly resistance fighters. But they had no interest whatsoever in “freedom” for Afghanistan. They wanted to rule it.
That is the same accusation I am levying against Hamas. They are terrorists, and they are resistance fighters. But they are not freedom fighters. Their goal is to eject Israel and install an Islamist, anti-democratic state.