Does Haaretz lie?

The Israeli government is gunning for Haaretz, the progressive left-leaning Israeli newspaper, for ‘disseminating lies and leftist propaganda’  and there is a looming threat that the government will shut it down. Shlomo Karhi, the communications minister, drafted a resolution to boycott Haaretz and stop government-paid subscriptions and advertising.

Many people feel Haaretz is anti-Zionist and even anti-Judaism. And some have accused it of printing lies when it serves its narrative. While the first two accusations are open to subjective interpretation the last one is not. The paper either knowingly prints lies or it doesn’t.

I am a freelance journalist who has published in Haaretz and I have been occasionally asked by Haaretz to submit editorials to them. When I work as a freelance tour guide, I often suggest to the foreign tourists I guide to read Ha’aretz because I feel it is one of the only media outlets in Israel that reports what is really going on in the West Bank. So I find myself in an uncomfortable position to say unequivocally that Haaretz does – when it serves its purpose – knowingly publish lies.

An article by Haaretz Journalist Nir Gontarz transcribed a telephone call he had with IDF Spokesman Richard Hecht accusing Hecht of letting journalists into Gaza who shouldn’t be let in. To make his point Gontarz used me as an example.

Gontarz implied that I should not have been let into Gaza because he claimed I’m not a journalist but rather a “full-time tour guide.” Then – showing the inferior quality of his work – Gontarz contradicts himself and said that actually I am a journalist working for a Russia news agency and I have a “Russian Orientation.” He then went on to imply that I lied to the IDF to get into Gaza by pretending that I was working for the well-known American newspaper USA Today.

Oh let me count the ways…

First, I have a press pass from the Israeli Government Press Office listing me as a freelance journalist. And since October 7^th the majority of my income has been from working as a journalist and as a fixer (a local journalist that helps foreign journalists) and not from tourism. Gontarz knew this (I told him this before the article was published) and yet he published that I’m a full-time tour guide implying that I should not have been let into Gaza. He knowingly lied just to attack the IDF spokesperson.

Second, as a freelance journalist in both print and TV media I sell my work to multiple outlets such as the LA Times, Harvard Review, Jerusalem Post, i24, Sky News UK, Sky News Arabia and RT (Russia Today.) Because I occasionally sell my work to Russia Today does not make me a reporter with a “Russian orientation.” That is like saying that since Steven Bannon publishes in the New York Times he has a liberal leftist orientation. And there are videos of me on-line defending Israel and pushing back against the Russia News channel. So here too Gontarz lied.

Lastly, I was hired by an American journalist who represented himself as writing for USA Today. He, not I, successfully applied to the IDF spokesperson unit for both of us to get into Gaza. It was there in Gaza that I translated for him what the soldiers were saying, took pictures for him and helped him into and out of a Hamas tunnel. He wrote the article about his trip into Gaza and indeed it was published in USA Today. So Gontarz again falsely implies that I lied to the IDF.

Two full days before his article saw daylight I spoke with Gontarz pointing out his mistakes and supplied him with documentation to back it up. He said he didn’t care because his sole goal in the article was to attack the IDF Spokesperson. So Gontarz is a liar.

But what about the ethics of the paper itself? When I asked to publish a response to his defamatory article the lawyer for Haaretz said she would only agree to publish it if I agreed not to sue Haaretz for slander. Clearly she understood Haaretz might be liable for slander. I agreed. But ultimately Haaretz did not place my response on the webpage of the original article where the lies are still found today. As a result, I tried to sue Haaretz for slander but the judge ruled that since I promised not to sue it if it published the letter in the physical paper I could not proceed with my charges of slander regardless of the slander that continues on the on-line paper.

The Editor in Chief of Haaretz Aluf Benn also seems to be lacking the ethics of a professional editor. Gontarz’s article ends by saying that no article I worked on in Gaza ever was published in USA Today – implying – again – that I am liar. A few weeks later the article that I worked on in Gaza was indeed published in USA Today and Editor in Chief Aluf Benn refuses to update the original Haaretz article.

All these years I have let Haaretz influence my thinking about Israel. I have loudly advocated on-line and in person for people to read the paper to truly understand the Palestinian Israeli conflict. But now I’m left wondering: how many other journalists at Haaretz publish lies like Nir Gontarz. How many other misleading articles does Haaretz publish that the editor in chief Aluf Benn doesn’t bother to correct or update. I just don’t know and it worries me. The only truth I know is that Haaretz doesn’t always print the truth.