Israel orders boycott of left-wing Haaretz newspaper over anti-government stance

Nation's oldest publication has long been critical of the Israeli Prime Minister

The offices of the Haaretz newspaper in Tel Aviv. Israel has ordered a boycott of the publication. Getty Images

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Israel ordered a boycott of the country's oldest newspaper over its criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his handling of the war in Gaza.

The proposal from Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi was approved by cabinet ministers on Sunday. Under the proposal, government officials and employees of government-funded bodies will be banned from communicating with Haaretz, Israel's most prominent left-wing newspaper.

Government advertisements will no longer be included in the paper, which Mr Karhi accused of supporting “the enemies of the state in the midst of a war” and funding incitement against the state.

“We will not allow a reality in which the publisher of an official newspaper in the state of Israel will call for the imposition of sanctions against it,” his office added.

The paper had been critical of Mr Netanyahu even before the Gaza war began and has investigated Israel's use of Palestinians as human shields to explore rigged buildings and tunnels in the enclave. The government considered a ban on the paper after comments made by its publisher Amos Schocken at a conference in London last month, where he referred to Palestinian militants as “freedom fighters” and accused Mr Netanyahu's government of imposing a “cruel apartheid regime” on Palestinians.

Haaretz said the decision was “another step in Netanyahu’s journey to dismantle Israeli democracy”. The paper “will not baulk and will not morph into a government pamphlet that publishes messages approved by the government and its leader,” it said.

Israel has used criticism of its war on Gaza to shut down media outlets operating in the country. In May, Israel's parliament voted to shut down Al Jazeera's operations, before raiding and closing its offices in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah in September.