Veteran anti-apartheid editors slam Ha’aretz sanctioning

The founders and former editors of the iconic, independent, and ground-breaking, apartheid-era newspaper, the Weekly Mail, have sent a letter of solidarity to the editor-in-chief and staff of Ha’aretz, known for its left-leaning stance.

Professor Anton Harber and Irwin Manoim, two South African pre-eminent media veterans, wrote to Ha’aretz to commiserate and show support for what it is experiencing at the hands of the present Israeli government.

Their message follows the Israeli government’s controversial decision last month to cut ties with Ha’aretz, sparking heated debate about press freedom and the responsibilities of independent media in a democracy.

In the Weekly Mail’s heyday, it was one of the newspapers at the butt of the National Party government’s media oppression.

“The Netanyahu government’s sanctions against Ha’aretz have brought back vivid memories of our own newspaper’s struggle against the apartheid government about four decades ago,” the two of them wrote on behalf of the Jewish Democratic Initiative (JDI), an organisation which campaigns for free speech, human rights, an end to the occupation, and a just and equitable peace in Israel-Palestine. “Indeed, while the Israeli government is enraged by any suggestion of apartheid-like behaviour, it continues to act from the same play book.”

Drawing on their experience, they recounted how the apartheid regime had targeted their publication. “Our newspaper was denied government advertising; shunned by government spokespeople; raided by police; banned from publication for weeks at a time; and our journalists arrested on a variety of fabricated charges. The state media was controlled by government propagandists, and much of the rest of the privately-owned media was either muted in its criticisms or loudly supportive.”

The Israeli government’s move came in the wake of comments made by Ha’aretz publisher Amos Schocken, who referred to Palestinian terrorists as “freedom fighters”, described Israel’s governance in the West Bank as that of a “cruel apartheid regime”, and called for sanctions against the government.

Even Leonid Nevzlin, the co-owner of Ha’aretz, publicly condemned Schocken’s statements made during a Ha’aretz-organised London conference on 27 October.

The Israeli government, however, approved a proposal by Communication Minister Shlomo Karhi to stop all state funded organisations engaging with Ha’aretz and advertising in the newspaper.

“We cannot allow a reality in which the publisher of an official newspaper in the state of Israel calls for sanctions against it, and support the state’s enemies in the midst of a war, while international bodies harm the legitimacy of the state of Israel, its right to self-defence, and actually impose sanctions against it and its leaders,” Karhi said.

Harber and Manoim wrote, “We watch the Israel situation today with alarm, as each of these scenarios plays out once more, against Ha’aretz and other media and individual journalists. We have also been horrified at the number of journalists who have died in the conflict and the treatment of journalists by all parties to the conflict.”

The South African duo praised Ha’aretz for its resilience and critical role in Israeli democracy, writing, “Ha’aretz isn’t just a good newspaper, it’s a great and brave one, an institution which Israel ought to be particularly proud of because, as long as there has been the voice of Ha’aretz, Israel could still make some claims to be a free society.”

They ended their letter with, “Next year, our newspaper, now known as the Mail & Guardian, celebrates its 40th anniversary. The apartheid regime has been dead for three decades. Take heart from that.”

Ha’aretz Editor-in-Chief Aluf Benn thanked the duo for their letter, and published it on the “Letters to the editor” page this week.

Harber and Manoim criticised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, telling the SA Jewish Report, “If he lays claim to democratic governance in a free-speech society, which he does often and loudly, then he has no business targeting a respected newspaper.”

“The purpose of sanctions against Ha’aretz is to cut off the paper’s revenue,” they said in a joint comment to the SA Jewish Report. “Based on our own experiences, that’s a first step. If it doesn’t silence Ha’aretz, harsher methods are likely to follow. Which is why we wrote the letter. We recall how important international support and solidarity was for our own survival. It reminded the government that acting against critical journalism came at a reputational cost.”

The JDI, which the pair represented in the letter, advocates for a peaceful, negotiated settlement to the long-standing Israel-Palestine conflict.

“No amount of bloodshed will ever offer a solution,” the pair said. “In the end, only diplomacy, a willingness by both sides to talk to their enemies, and an openness to compromise, will work.

“In 1988, during South Africa’s darkest hours under PW Botha, the notion of a peace settlement here seemed ludicrously naïve. Yet a year later, the ‘settler colonialist’ FW De Klerk and ‘the terrorist’ Nelson Mandela began a long, slow, difficult process that ended in an agreement. Today’s South Africa is imperfect, but it’s not at war, and the vast majority of people are substantially better off.”