Israel’s Netanyahu Stymieing both Israeli & Foreign Press from Reporting on Genocide of Palestinians in Gaza
by Dan Fournier, published Thursday, June 6, 2024, 10:15 EDT on fournier.substack.com
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv on October 18, 2023. Photo credit: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images.
Summary points
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been shunning the Israeli press since well before the current conflict with Hamas.
The Israeli government passed an unconstitutional “Al Jazeera law” which essentially bans the Middle Eastern news network from reporting within the country.
News from other foreign outlets such as the Associated Press (AP) are also being blocked for vague security reasons.
Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs has been secretly channelling funds to six media outlets including The Jerusalem Post for favourable media coverage.
The Israeli government is being criticised for directly interfering with the press and promoting propaganda.
Netanyahu Shuns the Israeli Press
According to a June 3rd article published by The Seventh Eye, an Israeli media watchdog organisation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Cabinet Ministers are “seriously harming freedom of the press.”
The Seventh Eye reports that Netanyahu has been tight-lipped since 2019 as he stopped being interviewed by journalists on public broadcasting; in 2021 he stopped being interviewed by Israeli journalists.
“The Prime Minister often gives interviews to foreign media, especially the American one. According to data from the Seventh Eye website, since the beginning of the war, the Prime Minister has given 26 interviews in English to foreign media, and no interviews to Hebrew media.” (Google translated from Hebrew)
“The disregard of media, and the avoidance of answering the Israeli public's questions, in Hebrew, seriously harms the freedom of the press, the public's right to know and democracy," states an appeal by Nurit Kanti, Chairman of the Organization of Journalists and Journalists.
Netanyahu’s last press conference dates back to May 31, 2024.
“Since the beginning of the war, he has avoided being interviewed even by Channel 14, which supports him and is dedicated to echoing his messages,” the article adds.
Foreign Press Ousted
On May 26, 2024, the Seventh Eye published a scathing article on Netanyahu titled ‘Why does Netanyahu want you to know when he is lying?’ (Google translated from Hebrew).
The watchdog organisation slammed Israel’s Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi (sometimes written Karai), a member of the Knesset for the same Likud party of which Netanyahu is the current Chairperson.
The article states that he has “upped the ante in his war on freedom of the press and ordered the closure of a broadcast station of the international news agency AP,” referring to the Associated Press.
With regards to AP, they elaborated that the actions of the Communications Minister lead to the shutter of a broadcast station in Sderot, a town in the Southern District of Israel, as well as the seizure of AP equipment.
“AP IN THE NEWS (MAY 21, 2024)
Israeli officials seize AP equipment and take down live shot of northern Gaza, citing new media lawJERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli officials seized a camera and broadcasting equipment belonging to The Associated Press in southern Israel on Tuesday, accusing the news organization of violating a new media law by providing images to Al Jazeera.”
The article stated that the Association of Foreign Journalists said that the new law allows media coverage of almost any news event to be blocked for ”vague security reasons."
The White House stated that they are concerned and will “investigate the issue.”
Another The Seventh Eye article stated that Netanyahu lied when asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper why he wouldn’t grant interview with Israeli journalists.
Screenshot of The Seventh Eye’s May 26, 2024 article מדוע נתניהו רוצה שתדעו כשהוא משקר (English: Why does Netanyahu want you to know when he is lying?); From left to right: CNN’s Jake Tapper, Israeli Minister of Communications Shlomo Karhi, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Pinocchio.
The Civil Rights Association in Israel petitioned against the "Al Jazeera Law,” (dubbed The Law for the Prevention of Harm to Foreign Broadcasters’ State Security) deeming it as unconstitutional.
“The law was approved after a long and shaky journey in the National Security Committee, during which an attempt was made to turn the government bill into a draconian bill that gives the government extensive authority to block media broadcasts, foreign and Israeli, on grounds determined by the ministers and without any legal oversight,” the article also stated (with emphasis added).
It further added that this law blocks the possibility of Israeli citizens and residents of the country from consuming diversified information that is not broadcast on Israeli media channels.
Lawyers from the Civil Rights Association say the law not only violates freedom of expression, freedom of the press and the right to information, but it does so precisely in times of war when these rights become more important than ever.
They added that the law tramples on the separation of powers and government and that it is used more for political purposes rather than the stated security reasons.
The tools given to the Minister of Communications "are very draconian, but are not effective in achieving the security purpose," the association cautioned.
From an April 2 report by the Associated Press, Netanyahu had vowed to shut down Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel, calling it a “terror channel” that spreads incitement, after parliament passed a law clearing the way for the closure.
The Qatar based broadcaster condemned Netanyahu’s incitement claim as a “dangerous ludicrous lie.”
In December, an Israeli strike killed an Al Jazeera cameraman as he reported on the war in southern Gaza.
“Netanyahu’s pledge escalated Israel’s long-running feud against Al Jazeera,” the article stated later adding that the network is “one of the few international media outlets to remain in Gaza throughout the war, broadcasting bloody scenes of airstrikes and overcrowded hospitals and accusing Israel of massacres.”
Israel accuses Al Jazeera of collaborating with Hamas, and Netanyahu claimed that the broadcaster was complicit in the October 7 massacre:
“Al Jazeera harmed Israel’s security, actively participated in the Oct. 7 massacre, and incited against IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] soldiers. It is time to remove the shofar of Hamas from our country,” Netanyahu said on X, formerly Twitter.
Fundraising & Propaganda
“The war in Gaza, the dimensions of the killing and destruction and the explicit calls for genocide have severely damaged the relations of the State of Israel with the rest of the world.”
This is a quote from June 2, 2024 article by The Seventh Eye which emphasises how Israel has tarnished its standing in the months that ensued the October 7th attack with the wanton killing and destruction [in Gaza].
They stated that after the October 7th attack wore off, the government began pouring money into private sector advocacy groups in an attempt to change the discourse back in favour of Israel.
The Seventh Eye’s claims were backed from a response document from Israel’s Ministry of Culture & Sport in which questions about media funding date back to at least 2017.
The Freedom of Information request made by the independent media group asked for engagement contracts pertaining to the advertisement arm of the Ministry of Strategic Affairs towards six major media groups in the country, including the highly read Times of Israel and the Jerusalem Post.
Regarding these two outlets, the request also sought to obtain information on the subject of an “international campaign to mobilize the Jewish and Israeli community for an advocacy effort against the delegitimization of Israel,” spread by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), a Palestinian-led movement which seeks to end international support for Israel's oppression of Palestinians and pressure Israel to comply with international law.
In an April 10, 2020 English article published by The Seventh Eye, it is revealed that Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs paid over 100,000 Israeli shekels to the Jerusalem Post to to publish anti-BDS articles, according to official government communiqués.
But the overall scope of spending on covert propaganda by the State of Israel stretches to over 50 million shekels, over $US13 million at the current exchange rate.
Unmasking BDS
In exchange for government money, the Jerusalem Post published a special supplement in June of 2019 titled “Unmasking BDS,” as part of the ministry’s attempts to delegitimize the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, the article continues.
The article expands on the endeavour stating that its scope reaches collaborating parties abroad, including in the United States with Senator Ted Cruz:
“Within the supplement’s pages, top journalists at the paper interviewed officials from the ministry as well as members of organizations abroad that work in concert with it. Other interviewees included Republican Senator and former U.S. presidential candidate Ted Cruz, who was described as a “brave warrior” for Israel.”
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz official portrait, 2019. Source: Wikipedia.
Senator Cruz recently received harsh criticism for co-signing a letter alongside a dozen Republican senators who threatened to sanction the International Criminal Court (ICC), its employees, and associates against issuing arrest warrants for Israeli officials over the nation’s conduct during the war in Gaza. Part of the letter read:
“The United States will not tolerate politicized attacks by the ICC on our allies. Target Israel and we will target you. If you move forward with the measures indicated in the report, we will move to end all American support for the ICC, sanction your employees and associates, and bar you and your families from the United States. You have been warned.”
The Seventh Eye noted that nowhere in the Jerusalem Post’s Unmasking BDS document does it declare that the Ministry of Strategic Affairs paid for it contents.
Cover page for the Jerusalem Post’s Unmasking BDS document.
An entire article dedicated to Senator Ted Cruz in the Unmasking BDS document appears in which the Congressman expressed that the BDS is an antisemitic movement that seeks to delegitimize and destroy the Jewish State.
The same article states that Texas Governor Greg Abbott had signed anti-BDS legislation into law sending a “a powerful message that Texas stands with Israel.”
Moreover, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis led a high-level delegation to Israel in May of 2019. “There is no place for BDS in the State of Florida,” he stressed. The piece further noted that he had helped in the successful battle to get Airbnb to drop its boycott of Jews in the West Bank.
As for Germany, Dr. Felix Klein – the Federal Commissioner for Jewish Life in
Germany and the Fight Against Antisemitism also showed his support for the cause, stating “When someone says that Israel is an apartheid state, that's antisemitism because 'an apartheid state' by definition cannot be legitimate.”
“In the future, no event with BDS-involvement will be tolerated on the premises of the Bundestag. We will now have to find a feasible way how the federal government should implement the decision of the Bundestag,” referring of course to the German Parliament.
Page 16 of the document focuses on world leaders speaking out against BDS which includes [former] U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State and Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Emmanuel Macron, President of France since 2017, Theresa May who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at the time, and Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada.
Former New York City mayor Bill de Blasio also figured among supporters.
Roger Waters (the English musician who co-founded the highly successful British rock band Pink Floyd), a staunch BDS supporter and human rights activist was criticised in the piece:
“To use the lyrics of one of his songs, Waters thinks he ‘can tell heaven from hell, blue skies from pain.’ But he can’t. He is clueless,” remarked the piece.
In early June of this year, the English article from The Seventh Eye stated that according to an internal document of the Jerusalem Post, government ministries are paying hundreds of thousands of shekels for participation in a conference in New York that will generate an extraordinary profit for Eli Azur's media group.
Eli Azur (sometimes spelled Azor) is an Israeli business tycoon who owns The Jerusalem Post Group which runs the daily newspaper of the same name.
Business tycoon Eli Azur, owner of the Jerusalem Post. Photo source: The Seventh Eye.
The annual conference of the Jerusalem Post is is held every year in New York.
Guest speakers for this year’s edition (full video here) include former Vice President of the United States Mike Pence, New York City Mayor Eric Adams and billionaire Ron Lauder (of Estée Lauder fame) who is the current president of the World Jewish Congress based in the Big Apple.
United States Congressmen Richie Torres – a pro-Israel progressive and Mike Lawler – equally a staunch supporter of Israel, both from New York.
“Most of the people who come to these events are kippah-wearing, modern Orthodox Jews from the New York area. It can be argued that the participation helps to foster contact with these communities, but as far as advocacy is concerned, it's a joke. It's convincing the convinced.”
The Jerusalem Post managed to raise budgets from the Ministry of Economy headed by Nir Barkat, and Absorption headed by Ofir Sofer, the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism headed by Amichai Shikli and the Jerusalem Development Authority.
“According to the document, additional amounts will be received from the Jewish Agency and from Mosaic, a joint body of the State of Israel and Jewish charities controlled by the Diaspora Ministry.”
The conference is expected to raise 4.5 million shekels (around US$1.2 million) for Eli Azur's media group, both from private and public corporations/funds.
“The sponsors are guaranteed that their messages will be widely echoed on social networks as well,” the piece added.
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Ole Demmegard, www.LightOnConspiracies.com spells out HOW to spot the false flags.... excellent. I am an instant fan of this material.
THE FOLLOWING POST will clarify what Israel and Netanyahu are really doing to Palestine, as well as, the US and the WORLD 🌎
https://veteranstoday.com/2022/03/10/the-hidden-history-of-the-incredibly-evil-khazarian-mafia/