‘Terrorists are not freedom fighters’ – Left-wing Haaretz newspaper disavows its publisher for hailing terrorists

The Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz backtracked comments made by its publisher, Amos Schocken, who recently called Palestinian terrorists “freedom fighters,” prompting several government ministries to cut commercial ties with the paper.

In an editorial published on Monday entitled, “Terrorists are not freedom fighters,” the paper criticized both Schocken's original statements and his subsequent clarification as being wrong.

“The fact that he didn’t mean to include Hamas terrorists doesn’t mean that other terrorist acts are legitimate, even if their perpetrators’ goal is to free themselves from occupation,” the editorial read.

The passage in question was delivered by Schocken at a Haaretz conference in London last week and went viral as part of a clip compiling several excerpts.

“The [Benjamin] 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,” Schocken said.

“Deliberately harming civilians is illegitimate,” the Haaretz editorial stressed.

“Using violence against civilians and sowing terror among them to achieve political or ideological goals is terrorism. Any organization that advocates the murder of women, children, and the elderly is a terrorist organization, and its members are terrorists. They certainly aren’t ‘freedom fighters’.”

“Throughout history, nations have waged armed struggle against oppressive occupiers to liberate themselves and achieve independence; not every armed struggle is terrorism. But the term ‘freedom fighter’ has a positive, even romantic, connotation, which could lead people to support illegitimate acts of violence. Those should be unacceptable in any way, shape or form.”

Schocken had later clarified that “as for Hamas, they are not freedom fighters,” acknowledging that his initial wording should have been different.

When asked by The Jerusalem Post for a comment, Schocken declined except to say, “It is clear that I was not referring to the events of October 7.”

After Schocken’s statement went viral, four government ministries announced on Thursday their intention to cease cooperation with Haaretz.

Justice Minister Yariv Levin wrote a letter to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara requesting a law proposal to penalize Israelis who “promote or encourage applying international sanctions on Israel, its leaders, its security forces, and the citizens of Israel,” with a ten-year jail sentence, and double that during a time of war.

The ministries that denounced Schocken’s statements and said they would cut ties were the Diaspora Affairs Ministry, the Interior Ministry, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Economy and Industry. 

Haaretz is one of Israel’s most well-known newspapers internationally, and its English version is still seen as the national paper of record in some circles, with many academic institutions maintaining subscriptions to the paper.

However, in Israel, the Hebrew version of the paper is seen by many as a radical left-wing outlet that enjoys only a small local readership.

In addition to the controversial passage likening terrorists to freedom fighters, Schocken blamed Israel for ignoring UN resolutions declaring settlements illegal, and called for international sanctions against its leaders.

“Not only did they continue building settlements, but the present government also supports the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from parts of the occupied territories. In a sense, what is taking place now in the occupied territories and in part of Gaza is a second Nakba of sending and creating refugees, even people who lived in the occupied territories in Area C and the people who live in the northern part of Gaza.”

“A Palestinian state must be established, and the only way to achieve this, I think, is to apply sanctions against Israel’s leader, against the leaders who oppose it, and against the settlers who are in the occupied territories in contravention of international law.”

“Zionism is still a justified idea for the Jewish people, but the conduct of successive Israeli governments has distorted its meaning beyond recognition. Israel needs to be put back on the right path, and unfortunately, the main way to do it, I think now, is by international pressure,” Schocken concluded.