Israel’s war with the media to suppress the facts of Gaza

According to the report of Fars News Agency International Group, the cabinet of the Israeli regime is putting pressure on Haaretz newspaper and some other domestic media to align them with Tel Aviv’s narrative regarding the Gaza war.

“Shalom Karhi”, Israel’s Minister of Finance, has accused Ha’aretz newspaper of “defending Israel during the war” and demanded to consider fines for this newspaper.

Among the fines considered for this newspaper is canceling the subscription of this newspaper for Israeli government institutions and taking some other measures.

On the other hand, the Union of Israeli Journalists described the finance minister’s statements as “populist” and said that these claims lack any logic.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet activated some “emergency laws” last month in order to shut down foreign media whose reports he considers harmful. The law allows targeted media outlets to be shut down for at least 30 days.

Haaretz newspaper wrote in a report on October 15 that the title chosen for the newer version of this law is “Limiting Aid to the Enemy through Communications”. In that plan, there were plans to impose extensive restrictions on domestic and foreign media. However, in the end, this plan was not implemented.

The main purpose of this bill was to shut down the Al Jazeera TV channel, which played a big role in clarifying some of the facts of Gaza. But Netanyahu’s cabinet finally rejected that plan because of the hope it had in those days for Qatar to advance the prisoner exchange negotiations.

On November 13, The Times of Israel reported that Netanyahu’s cabinet prevented Al-Mayadeen TV from operating inside occupied Palestine by citing this bill.

A week later, on November 21, the Israeli regime killed two journalists of this media in an airstrike in southern Lebanon. “Farah Omar” and “Rabih Al-Mommari” were targeted and lost their lives while covering the clashes between Hezbollah and Israel in southern Lebanon.

“Committee to Protect Journalists” one day Later, he demanded an independent investigation into the possibility that this attack on al-Mayadeen journalists was intentional. The committee’s statement said: “Journalists are civilians who are doing important work in times of crisis and should not be targeted by warring parties.” The Committee to Protect Journalists reported. Since the beginning of the conflicts in Gaza, 50 Palestinian journalists and 3 Lebanese journalists have died.

In a report, Reporters Without Borders pointed to Israel’s repressive practices against the media and wrote: “Under Israel’s military censorship laws, reporting on some security issues requires prior permission from officials. In addition to the possibility of filing defamation lawsuits against journalists, they may be targeted with other charges such as criminal defamation and insulting a government official. There is a freedom of information law, but it is often difficult to enforce it.”

Publishing news in Israeli domestic media also faces various obstacles. The Times of Israel reported that any information about security and intelligence issues must be approved by Israel’s main censor, General Kabi Mandelbit, before being published in traditional and virtual media.

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