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.”

  • cygnus@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    I 100% support Palestinian statehood but to deny that Hamas are terrorists is absurd. A true “freedom fighter” would attack only government and military targets and would never condone killing 500+ civilians at a music festival. Do you believe that’s acceptable?

    • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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      9 hours ago

      To get out of this whole mess, this is a textbook no true Scotsman argument. The IRA were freedom fighters and also notorious for killing civilians (car bombs anyone?).

    • IndustryStandard@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 day ago

      Hamas targets were military targets. More than 33% killed were active IDF soldiers.

      The music festival next to a military base was not even supposed to be there. And there were many armed IDF soldiers at the festival (human shields anyone?)

      If Hamas wanted civilian casualties they would have pushed into Israeli cities instead of raiding the heavily guarded military bases around the Gaza envelope.

      For a more detailed explanation, an Israeli person made this great video https://youtu.be/Pt_1k7nSv1M

      • cygnus@lemmy.ca
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        9 hours ago

        Hamas targets were military targets. More than 33% killed were active IDF soldiers.

        “Only two-thirds of the people killed were civilians!” is quite the defense. Impressive.

        • IndustryStandard@lemmy.worldOP
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          4 hours ago

          The US had a civilian casualty rate of 12/13 in Iraq.

          The IDF with 70% women and children killed would have a higher civilian casualty rate than Hamas even if literally every single man they killed was an active duty Hamas fighter.

          • cygnus@lemmy.ca
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            4 hours ago

            OK, and? You’re seriously trying to defend 66% civilian casualties because 70%+ is worse?

        • prole
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          7 hours ago

          Now compare that to the IDF…

          • cygnus@lemmy.ca
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            6 hours ago

            I am. Killing civilians is bad, and I don’t care who does it. Only on Lemmy do we see galaxy-brains decrying Palestinian deaths while brushing off 66% civilian casualties on the Israeli side.

      • catloaf@lemm.ee
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        1 day ago

        All that may be true, but when the plan went to shit, they still attacked, killed, and took hostage many civilians.

    • small44@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      The Anc in south Africa was responsible of killing civilians, same with many resistance groups like the mau mau in kanya, the fln in algeria and Nana Sahib soldiers in India. Nate Turner also killed women and children’s of slave owners. Commiting some act of terror doesn’t strip those groups and people from being freedom fighters. You support a state for Palestinians while opposing the people who are currently fighting the IDF because the West is doing nothing to stop it