AMOS SCHOCKEN, HAARETZ CHIEF & FOUNDER CALLS HAMAS "FREEDOM FIGHTERS" - Israeli society has a cow.

Amos Schocken teaches Israelis that Israel must recognize Palestinians' right to self-determination and freedom from Occupation AND must end the war and occupation.

You talk about bold heroes going where no Israeli newspaper has gone before, Haaretz newspaper founder and chief Amos Schocken is shocking the hell out of his fellow Israelis by calling for an end to the occupation and war and by calling Hamas “freedom fighters.”

Haaretz in government crosshairs after publisher calls terrorists ‘freedom fighters’

Newspaper boss also tells its conference in London that Israel is imposing ‘apartheid,’ should be sanctioned; some ministries cut ties with it; government consider complete boycott

The ministries of the interior, education, and Diaspora affairs cut ties with the Haaretz newspaper Thursday, while the communications minister proposed a boycott covering all government bodies, after publisher Amos Schocken told a conference that Israel is imposing an “apartheid regime” on the Palestinians and referred to “Palestinian freedom fighters that Israel calls terrorists.”

In a letter to its spokesperson’s department, Interior Ministry Director General Ronen Peretz wrote that Schocken’s remarks “provoke disgust and show a disconnect from basic values.”

He said that Israel is in the midst of a war “that could not be more justified” following the Palestinian terror group Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

The action would cover all advertising and announcements of government tenders in both the printed edition and on the Haaretz website, Channel 12 reported.

“Our ministry is entrusted with the campaign against the delegitimization of Israel, and it is astounding to specifically see a supposedly ‘Israeli’ organization acting against Israel from within,” Diaspora Affairs Ministry Director-General Avi Cohen-Scali said.

Education Ministry Director General Meir Shimoni likewise ordered an end to all cooperation with Haaretz, telling staff in a letter that Schocken’s remarks “contradict the values of the education system.”

Meanwhile, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi proposed to the government that it end all interaction with Haaretz, including ads by the Government Press Office.

Such action, he wrote in the proposal, “will reduce the hard impact that Israeli citizens feel, not just from the newspaper’s publications, but also because they are required to fund it from their tax money.”

The boycott would not entail a disproportionate impact on freedom of speech, Karhi said.

He noted that Haaretz must have taken into account that its stance, as expressed by Schocken, would upset some of its clients, including the State of Israel.

In his remarks, made Sunday at a Haaretz conference in London and circulated on social media in a video apparently compiled from several excerpts from his speech, Schocken was seen saying, “The Netanyahu government doesn’t care about imposing a cruel apartheid regime on the Palestinian population. It dismisses the costs to both sides for defending the [West Bank] settlements while fighting the Palestinian freedom fighters that Israel calls terrorists.”

“In a sense, what is taking place in the occupied territories and parts of Gaza is a second Nakba,” Schocken said, invoking a term describing the displacement of Palestinians during Israel’s War of Independence in 1948.

He said the only way to establish a necessary Palestinian state is “to apply sanctions against Israel, against the leaders who oppose it, and against the settlers.”

In a statement issued on Thursday evening, Schocken said he had reconsidered his remarks and should have used different wording regarding Palestinian freedom fighters.

“I’ve reconsidered what I said,” Schocken said. “There are many freedom fighters in the world and through history, perhaps also on the path to the establishment of the State of Israel, who carried out shocking and dreadful terrorist activities and harmed innocent people in order to achieve their goals.

“I should have said, ‘Freedom fighters who also use terrorist methods and need to be fought against.’ The use of terrorism is not legitimate,” Schocken said.

RON HAROLD: “Dear Mr. Schocken: Once again Israelis have conned someone into apologizing for supporting Palestinians who seek freedom from Occupation.

There is a BIG DIFFERENCE - NIGHT AND DAY DIFFERENCE - between armed Jewish refugees shooting, stabbing, raping and killing thousands of Palestinians in their homes, on Palestinian land to form the State of Israel (NAKBA 1948), and the grandchildren of those Palestinian families exercising their legal right to form armed resistance groups and using ANY MEANS NECESSARY to evict the unlawful Occupying Power Israel.

The Geneva Conventions specifically provide that civilian populations enjoy a legal right to form and maintain armed resistance groups and do in fact enjoy what the Geneva Conventions refer to as their right to utilize, “….any means necessary” to evict an Occupying Power.

Further, pursuant to the internationally-recognized Law of Reciprocity, whenever a party executes atrocities against another party and no appropriate venue or justice is available, the aggrieved victims are entitled to use “reciprocal force” against the perpetrators. I contend such is the case regarding Israel’s state-sponsored war crimes, occupation, mass imprisonment of millions of Palestinians.

I agree with int’l attorneys who contend that Hamas’ Operation Al Aqsa Flood qualifies as reciprocal force as the stated purpose of Operation Al Aqsa Flood was to gain the release of 10,000 Palestinians being unlawfully held hostage indefnitely in Israeli prisons and jails, who were literally kidnapped from their Palestinian homes on Palestinian land.

Israelis complain about Palestinians taking 200 hostages being a war crime, but forget that their government literally kidnapping 10,000 Palestinians from their homes and holding them hostage indefinitely is also a war crime that had a direct connection to IDF soldiers kidnapping 10,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children.

The US media give absolutely no attention to Palestinian hostages being held, raped and impregnated for years and years in Israeli prisons, mostly women and children.

October 7 did not occur in a vaccum, but occurred as a direct result of not only 75 years of Israeli occupation, mass murder and mass imprisonment of millions of Palestinians, but happened because Benjamin Netanyahu “Swatted the Hornet’s Nest” for two years prior to Oct. 7, dispatching Israeli police and wild armed settlers to Mosques, including the most revered Muslim mosque in all the world, the Al Aqsa Mosque where worshippers were beaten, arrested, hog-tied facedown in the mosque during Ramadan prayers.

Hamas had not fired a single rocket into Israel for years, but warned Netanyahu specifically if he didn’t stop his mosque raids, Hamas will take action against Israel.

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what Israeli state court criminal Defendant Netanyahu wanted, was to start a war with Hamas that Netanyahu would prosecute and prolong to keep Israeli criminal prosecutors at bay. Believe that because it’s 100% TRUE.

And guess what? “Swatting the Hornet’s Nest” didn’t begin with Netanyahu, but began since NAKBA 1948, whenever an Israeli Prime Minister wanted to take more Palestinian land, that Israeli PM knew he or she couldn’t just send a note to Palestinians asking them to deport themselves because they are standing on Israeli land - no, that Prime Minister would “Swat the Hornet’s Nest” to start a conflict Israelis knew they would easily win, since Israelis knew they enjoyed a vastly superior state military force while Palestinians had no state military force and equipment, had no fighter jets, had no U.S. guided ballastic missiles, had no tanks, armored personnel carriers, no Apache helicopters, etc.

Hamas’ stated goal of Operation Flood was to gain the release of Palestinian hostages by kidnapping and trading Israeli hostages for Palestinian hostages.

On the morning of October 7, Hamas breached Israeli prison walls and executed Operation Al Aqsa Flood. Once Hamas breached the walls, scores of unorganized angry Palestinians also poured through the breached walls and committed violent war crimes against Israelis in the Kibbitz. Why were they so angry? Perhaps their family members were beaten, raped or killed by Israeli soldiers. Perhaps they were sick and tired of living under Israeli occupation behind giant Israeli prison walls their entire lives since birth.

What kind of government routinely mass murders the victims of their military occupation and blockade, routinely kidnaps and holds hostage dozens and dozens of Palestinian men, women and children in Israeli jails and prisons, and imprisons millions of Palestinians behing giant Israeli prison walls, but expect their victims to write Israel thank you notes instead of attempting to breach Israeli prison walls? WTF?

Mahmoud the Palestinian podcaster said of the American administration: “Here’s some snacks before we bomb you to death.”

The Chutzpah of Israeli Supremacy over the lives of millions of Palestinians, shocks the conscience, if you have one.”

Ron Harold opposes U.S. wars, proxy wars, occupations, opposes state-sponsored war crimes. To PUMP UP THE VOLUME against US PROXY WARS and the bi-partisan boondoggle, become a paid subscriber.