Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz on Thursday instructed the director general of his ministry to immediately cease all communications between the Foreign Ministry and Haaretz.
This followed statements made by the newspaper's publisher, Amos Schocken, who expressed criticism of the State of Israel, called Hamas terrorists "freedom fighters" and even claimed that Israel was committing "apartheid."
The decision includes a complete halt to all advertising communications with the newspaper, cancellation of subscriptions to Foreign Ministry employees in Israel and abroad, and severing any official channel of communication between the Foreign Ministry and the newspaper.
The Ministry of National Security and other government ministries – including Education, the Diaspora, Culture and Sports – have already announced that they are ceasing their association with Haaretz following the remarks, alongside calls by public figures and media figures to boycott the newspaper on an editorial basis.
Channel 14 News revealed that during a conference held in London, Schocken said that "Palestinian terrorists are freedom fighters," claimed that Israel was carrying out a "Nakba" against Palestinians in Gaza, and called for sanctions to be imposed on Prime Minister Netanyahu and Ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir.
* Channel 14 contributed to this article.
