Netanyahu’s Government Declares War on Haaretz Exposing Israel's Rotting Veneer Of Democracy

Netanyahu's crackdown on Haaretz exposes Israel's deepening descent into fascism, suppressing freedom and erasing it's veneer of democracy, much like it erases Palestinians.

In a brazen assault on free speech and journalism, Benjamin Netanyahu's government has sanctioned Haaretz, Israel’s oldest newspaper, accusing it of “hurting the state” through its critical coverage of the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

This follows a law, approved Sunday, directing all government-linked organizations to sever ties with Haaretz, including ending advertisements and communications with its journalists.

The trigger? A speech in London by Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken, in which he (rightly) referred to Palestinians as “freedom fighters.”

If more proof were needed that Israel’s claim to being a democracy is nothing but a hollow lie, this move seals the deal. Silencing dissent, especially from within, has become Israel’s top priority in order to obscure the barbaric nature of it’s unfolding genocide in Gaza.

The ban follows Haaretz’s sharp criticism of Netanyahu's administration during a London conference, where the paper highlighted the government’s unabashed expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and its racist apartheid policies against Palestinians.

Make no mistake: this draconian measure is not about protecting Israel. This is about punishing Haaretz for telling the truth— a truth that both Israelis and the world desperately deserve to hear. It’s the same reason Al Jazeera was banned in Israel: exposing the reality of Israel’s relentless violations of all moral and legal norms, which threatens the state’s manufactured narrative.

The government’s justification? That Haaretz “supports terrorism” and undermines Israel’s legitimacy.

In reality, Haaretz is guilty of something far more dangerous to authoritarian apartheid regimes: serving as a mirror to a diabolical and increasingly depraved society so hellbent on dehumanizing Palestinians that it is unaware it is deeply dehumanizing itself in the process.

While most Western media capitulate to Israeli pressure, Haaretz has remained a rare voice of accountability, exposing the moral rot of policies in Gaza and the Occupied Territories.

But this isn’t just about Haaretz. It’s part of a calculated campaign to crush independent journalism and dissent in Israel altogether. Even Channel 13, which dares to criticize Netanyahu occasionally, has faced government pressure. Yosef Yisrael, an anchor for Channel 13, aptly declared: “A regime that fights against the independent media around it is a regime that aspires to dictatorship.”

This assault has been brewing for well over a year. Israel started by shutting down Al Jazeera under a new law permitting the ban of foreign media seen as “threats to national security.” Then came equipment confiscations from AP journalists accused of providing live feeds to Al Jazeera. Now, Haaretz is in the crosshairs—and this is likely just the beginning.

And the stakes couldn’t be higher. Journalism is fundamental to democracy. Particularly at times of when the western media and political establishment is all too eager to rationalize and justify a campaign of ethnic-cleansing and genocide.

Silencing the press is the hallmark of regimes descending into dictatorship. And yet, Israel—an ethnocracy cloaked in the thin veneer of democracy—seems intent on eliminating dissent. The country’s foundation as a settler-colonial project, codified to maintain Jewish supremacy, makes this crackdown unsurprising but no less alarming.

This is no isolated incident; it’s part of a global trend. The silencing of Haaretz echoes America’s creeping authoritarianism, where dysfunction and polarization choke democratic norms. Yet, in Israel, the stakes are amplified: the press is not just under attack; journalists are dying. Since October 7, 74 journalists have been arrested in occupied Palestine, and over 100 of the 1,000 journalists in Gaza have been killed by Israeli forces. These numbers aren’t coincidental; they reflect a deliberate strategy to destroy witnesses and silence the truth.

Tim Dawson, Deputy Secretary General of the International Federation of Journalists, told Al Jazeera that journalists in Gaza are being killed at a rate “much higher than the general population, three times higher than medical professionals … the anecdotal evidence is that the targeting is deliberate.”

The lack of solidarity from news organizations with the journalists in Gaza who have been targeted and killed, along with their families is as disgraceful as Israel’s unprecedented assault on media freedom and the world’ right to know itself.

When the Israeli regime is not busy killing journalists, it is busy finding other ways to criminalize dissent. Today Israel’s parliament is pushing a bill to shield lawmakers from criminal investigations and civil lawsuits, making accountability impossible.

Journalism and journalists are not just under attack; the entire concept of checks and balances is being dismantled.

Meanwhile, Channel 14, Netanyahu’s de facto propaganda outlet, relentlessly incites against Haaretz and its truth-tellers, labeling them “enemies of the state.” Journalists like Gideon Levy and Amira Hass are relentlessly smeared and threatened for their attempt to do their job: hold the powerful to account and report fundamental facts.

The truth is this: Israel is not a democracy. It is a settler-colonial apartheid regime, founded on and sustained by the dispossession and oppression of Palestinians. This latest attack on Haaretz simply underlines the country’s abandonment of any pretense of democratic values.

But there is hope, at least for Haaretz. It is one of the few newspapers globally that has thrived behind a paywall, and this assault may galvanize new subscribers. A broader international awakening to the cost of silencing dissent could emerge.

The world must take a stand, before it is too late. Journalism is not a crime; attacking it, is. The attack on Haaretz is an attack on everyone’s right to know the truth about Israel’s conduct—so long as Israelis are protected from the truth, by their own government and Western political and media establishment, into believing they have a right to commit such atrocities, the mass murder will only continue and we will all be less safe because of it.