Desert Peace

Correction + mea culpa + apology + updates & more corrections...

Many of my readers may have noticed that I have not been posting many articles by Amira Hass lately. I have also not been cross posting a regular column by Gideon Levy called ‘The Twighlight Zone’. To be honest with you, I have combed the pages of HaAretz looking for these tidbits but to no avail. This morning I found out why… there has been a purge at HaAretz...

New owners of the newspaper are slowly but surely ‘weeding out’ the only voices of truth and reason in the Israeli press…. so typical of what has been going on generally in the ‘free world of censorship’.

I received the following via email today… it tells it all.. it was written by Edward C. Corrigan, a lawyer (Immigration and Refugee Law) living in London, Ontario, Canada. It’s a MUST read….

Putsch being carried out among reporting staff at Haaretz

by Ed Corrigan

A new German owner has purchased Haaretz and a “Putsch is being carried out among reporting staff,” in the most important and liberal Zionist paper in Israel. According to inside sources, the new owner has carried out a rough, sittingroom survey that revealed that “the occupation doesn’t sell newspapers” and they are therefore concentrating on the business world (ie. The Marker). Twilight Zone, Gideon Levy’s regular Friday column, has been scrapped, Amira Hass has been degraded to freelance on half salary, Meron Rapaport has been fired and Akiva Eldar has lost at least one half page a week.

The paper frequently allowed journalists critical of the Israeli occupation to publish articles that exposed the reality of the occupation to be exposed to the Israeli population and was circulated around the world. The new editorial direction is disturbing news. Haaretz was one of the few decent Israeli media outlets and showed that in Israel there was some respect for freedom of the press and critical discussion. This is a repeat of the situation when Conrad Black bought the Jerusalem Post and hired an Israeli censor to be publisher. The decent journalists all quit in protest, including Benny Morris back when he still had a moral conscience.

It reflects a more disturbing trend. Norman Finkelstein was recently denied entry into Israel and the West Bank. Bishop Desmond Tutu was denied entry into Israel too. Prominent Palestinian journalists are routinely denied exit visas by the Israelis to leave the Occupied Territories to go on speaking tours and a group of Palestinians students from Gaza were also recently denied exit visas to attend American universities after being granted Fulbright Scholarships from the American Government.

It appears that the Israelis are closing down many if not all of the sources of critical information coming out of Israel. The hypocrisy of it all is that Israel complains that when the British Academic Union proposes a boycott of Israeli academic institutions as a way to pressure Israel and to protest Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians the Israelis start to scream that the proposed boycott is a violation of freedom of speech and a violation of academic freedom. Israeli authorities have been crushing academic freedom and free speech for Palestinians, and even Israeli critics, for decades. Israel does not want its own population and the rest of the world to know what it is doing to the Palestinians.

ACCUSED OF CENSORSHIP

© 2008 Ed Corrigan / Steve Amsel

SOURCE: http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2008/05/31/free-world-of-censorship-purge-at-haaretz-news/

URL: http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2008/05/31/free_world_of_censorship_purge_at_haaret

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AN APOLOGY FROM DESERTPEACE

Yesterday I posted a piece about a ‘purge’ at the HaAretz Newspaper.

It was sent to me by a very reliable source and dear friend…. but apparently the content was not quite the truth.

The main jist of the post is seen in this excerp…. “the occupation doesn’t sell newspapers” and they are therefore concentrating on the business world (ie. The Marker). Twilight Zone, Gideon Levy’s regular Friday column, has been scrapped, Amira Hass has been degraded to freelance on half salary, Meron Rapaport has been fired and Akiva Eldar has lost at least one half page a week.

The post in question can be seen HERE.

This morning I received a comment from one Sol Salbe of the Middle East News Service in Melbourne Australia, saying that..

Before posting this wouldn’t it been a good idea to check some of Corrigan’s assertions to check if they are indeed true? For example would it hurt to check if Gideon Levy’s column was there or not, in last Fridays paper? Check it for yourself or just click on http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/988412.html.

Some other items readers may find relevant in judging the value of Corrigan’s fact checking and analysis:

• The new German investors viz DuMont Schauberg only own 25 per cent proportion of the paper which they bought in 2006. Their major influence is in forcing general cutbacks (something common to newspapers around the world); they don’t care too much about the politics.

• Amira Hass is on sabbatical leave at her own request. She told that to Dorothy Naor of the Israeli organisation New Profile. Check their website http://www.newprofile.org/default.asp?language=en to assess Dr Naor’s credibility for yourself.

• Several reporters left/were sacked at the time the new editor, Dov Alfon, took over. This is again fairly normal. According to Ice News, a professional Hebrew media industry newsletter, http://www.ice.co.il/article.asp?catId=2&pgId=120831, the reporters were associated with the outgoing editor David Landau. Only one of these, Meron Rapoport would be familiar to readers who follow the conflict.

• As media monitor who has been reading every single item of Eldar’s work in both English and Hebrew I have not noticed any change in his output..

I contacted Gideon Levy and he verified that his column has NOT been trashed.

As I said in my own comment answering Mr. Salbe; ‘Perhaps I ‘jumped the gun’ on this one…. if so, I apologize to my readers for publishing wrong information.

Thank you to Sol Salbe for bringing this to my attention.’

So, to my readers, my humble apologies. This was a mistake and every attempt will be made to ensure it never happens again.

I must add that I am very pleased the information was not correct.

Likewise, The People's Voice must share the responsibility for this and we hereby offer our humble apologies to our readers. Sorry!

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UPDATES ON THE HaARETZ ‘PURGE’ SAGA

The following was received as a comment on THIS post today… it bring us up to date on the misinformation regarding the ‘purge’ at HaAretz…

To date, there has not been a word muttered by Ed Corrigan, the author of the original report…. but, he’s a lawyer…. need I say more?

Again, thanks to Sol Salbe for the updated information.

There are further items of interest to help complete the picture:

1) Merron Rapoport had an article in Yesterday’s (Monday) Haaretz in both Hebrew and English. A common friend has verified that he is working out the notice period, in other words, he HAS been sacked.

2) A Letter from Amira Hass to Ed Corrigan: (as I received it from him). Here is an email that I received from Amira Hass on the current situation and changes at Haaretz.

Ed Corrigan

Dear Ed Corrigan,

I forward you a letter I have already sent to two people who asked me directly about the rumors.

I should add that as far as i know Gideon Levy’s column is under no threat. It was published last Friday as usual, and so are his weekly op-eds.

Dear friends,

The rumors and and some inaccuracies concerning my work at Haaretz, and the general interest and manifested alarm -indeed require my comments. You two have asked me directly about those rumors. So here is my answer:

1. I am on an upaid sabbatical (since March 2008). It was my request to have this leave of absence. I needed it badly, after almost 15 years of covering the Israeli occupation from within (and for a great part of this time - working up to 15 - 18 hours per day). For long periods the work was done in the stressful circumstances of military invasions, bombings and shellings, standing in front of tanks or edgy armed soldiers, curfews, strict closures, PA mainfested malcontent with any critical reporting etc. No less stressful has been life in the orwellian theater of a “peace process” - trying - usually in vain - to make the readers and my compatriots aware of the deception and the explosiveness of the situation.

2. In November 2007 I was told by Haaretz that my contract and terms of employment should be changed as I had been writing too little over the past year.

3. In November I was too tired and dispirited to be able to explain all that was obviously needed to be explained, and to negotiate the terms of a new contract, and therefore we agreed to postpone everything. According to my agreement with Haaretz, I may write free lance during my year leave of absence. As I have been away most of the time, it hasn’t happened yet (except for two op-eds). Also, according to the agreement, by the end of the sabbatical I’ll return to work for a half year - within the same terms. It is then that it will be decided how to proceed.

4. All this took place BEFORE Haaretz nominated a new editor in chief.

5. As for the dismissal of other colleagues (several editors, not only reporters): It is of course sad to know that people
who have worked for years, and dedicated time, thoughts, energy
and professionalism - have to start looking for a new place.

I do find it extremely deplorable that Miron Rapoport will not be
writing for Haaretz. He is a very prolific reporter, who excels
at investigations, who writes well and for whom journalism is clearly about “monitoring power” and challenging authorities.

Since I placed myself in Gaza, at the beginning of the 90’s, I have learned that in our society (where there is democracy for Jews) - the right for freedom of thought, expression and information is fairly guaranteed. But there is no OBLIGATION to excercise these liberties.

This year I intend to complete the writing of a book on Israel’s policy of closure (”the robbery of time and space” - as i term it).

Thank you for your concern -

Amira

3) Message from Dorothy Naor of New Profile forwarding a letter from Haaretz editor Dov Alfon. (Please note that I excised the Hebrew expecting it to come as gibberish on those websites. It is available from me at ssalbe@westnet.com.au. Start forwarded message:

Thanks to Hanna for forwarding the Hebrew, and much gratitude to Sol Salbe for translating -and in a wink!

Below is the response of the editor of Ha’aretz to a letter regarding the issue that has been bandied back and forth in emails the past several days, namely, the changes taking place in the newspaper and the reasons for them.

One correction to the letter. The editor states that 4 years ago Gideon Levy’s Twilight Zone was shunted from the Magazine to where it now is . This is definitely an error. I doubt that it has been a year, though I don’t remember the exact date. But that, in any event, is not the main issue.

I think that Dov Alfon’s statement “Obviously, cancellation of subscriptions will have the opposite affect and force us into further cutbacks” should be taken seriously. My sources likewise felt that canceling subscriptions would not achieve the results that we hope for.

The original Hebrew follows the English.

Dorothy

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From: Haaretz Daily Newspaper

Dear Dr Raymond Leicht and Ronit Beck,

Thank you for your letter. I’ve received five similar letters today. Some of the writers noted with concern that an aggressive campaign is being conducted against the paper based on false information. It may be the case that the disinformation is being spread out by extreme right-wing circles or perhaps it is based on a simple misunderstanding.

The substantive point is that, as part of the printed media crisis, five reporters and editors are leaving the paper in consequence of the elimination of the ‘B’ section of the paper. For the record, at least two of these hold opposite views to Meron Rapoport who is mentioned in your letter. He is indeed a talented writer, but he has been working for us for only three years, since he was sacked by Yediot Acharonot. Newspapers are trying to survive and they have two choices – increase their circulation or cut down on editorial costs. The New York Times has recently sacked 7 per cent of its reporting staff (presumably some of these would have been identified as being on the Left). Closer to home, Ma’ariv has announced that it would be cutting down its stuff by 10 per cent in the course of this year. I hope that our path will take the opposite direction, that we will succeed in convincing more people to join our readers circle. Obviously, cancellation of subscriptions will have the opposite affect and force us into further cutbacks.

This course of action is indeed painful, but it is rather limited compared to developments in similar newspapers around the globe. But, there is no connection between the cutbacks and Amira Hass’s sabbatical leave. That leave was agreed upon well before I took over as Editor, and she is expected to return to the paper, if that is her wish. This is not her first leave of absence nor is it a new practice; Tom Segev had returned from an even longer break less than a year ago,

In fact, if a change had taken place in the past month – since I took over the role – it has been in precisely the opposite direction to what you describe in your letter. Purely by chance, it was in this period that Haaretz received exclusive information upon which we were able to base some stories that were prominently published. These included the exclusion of Norman Finkelstein (Yossi Melman), the new attempts by the Justice Minister to influence the High Court (Shahar Ilan, Jonathan Lis), the Elad NGO takeover operations in East Jerusalem (Akiva Eldar) and of course the Talansky-Messer affair (Gidi Weitz).

As for the move of Gideon Levy’s column from the “Week End” to the magazine section, this had happened four years ago, as result of lack of chemistry between Gideon and the then Musaf editor, Rogel Alpher. It was me who initiated the column during my stint as Musaf editor in 1994. I was also the one who came with its name, the “Twilight Zone”. I see it as a vital part of the paper.

It is saddening to note that such an aggressive disinformation campaign is being conducted against Haaretz. But as a fighting newspaper we are used to encounter organised mudslinging campaigns. We hope to survive this current campaign as well.

I thank you for your interest in Haaretz and hope this letter has allayed your fears.

Yours Sincerely

Dov Alfon

Editor Haaretz