Censorship in the State of Israel

Hi everyone!

There's a freedom of speech battle currently being waged in Israel between the media and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to a report in today's New York Times, Israel's Channel 10 -- one of only two independent channels in the state of Israel -- is under fire for a report it broadcast last spring about an expensive vacation Netanyahu and his wife had taken to New York, London, and Paris on the dime of wealthy friends in 2009, before he became prime minister but was a member of parliament. The network went so far as to make public the bills the Netanyahu's racked up during their trip. As a result, the prime minister's rightist Likud party has refused to extend the end-of-January deadline Channel 10 had been granted to pay back its $11 million debt.

This isn't the first time Channel 10 has infuriated the Likud Party. In 2006, Channel 10 broadcast a series of negative reports on Israel's handling of the Lebanon War as well as allegations of under-the-table land deals conducted by Ariel Sharon's family while he was prime minister. In addition, Channel 10 was instrumental in reporting on the deaths of a Palestinian doctor and his three daughters during Israel's military strikes against Gaza in 2008-2009. In other words, what this boils down to is an attempt by the Israeli government to stifle freedom of speech in a country that was purportedly founded on democratic principles. The latest moves against Channel 10 come mere weeks after legislation was introduced in the Knesset that seeks to prevent loudspeakers in Israel from announcing the Islamic call to prayer and another that prevents left-leaning Israeli groups from receiving financial aid from foreign governments.

According to the New York Times, over the past ten years, Channel 10 was financed by several wealthy investors who happened to be friends of Netanyahu, including American cosmetic mogul Ronald S. Lauder and Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan. Netanyahu had initially supported the idea of a right-oriented news network because he'd felt Israel's news channels were too liberal. But once Channel 10 started criticizing the Likud Party's more hawkish policies the channel rapidly fell out of favor. If the network fails to either get another extension on its debt repayment or pay the $11 million outright, it will be off the air in a month's time, which means Israel will be left with only one independent television network...again a rather dubious distinction in a country meant to be a democracy.

Of course, democracy in Israel is a selective affair. Any country that practices a brutal form of apartheid against its native inhabitants can hardly be considered a democratic state. This is also a country where its Arab population is forced to live as second class citizens and is not granted a representative voice in parliament. I realize that Israel has had to endure its share of terrorist attacks and should be granted a certain leeway in defending itself, but the indiscriminate and disproportionate killing of innocent women and children in the name of self-defense is not only shameful, it is criminal. Unfortunately, precedents for this have long since been set -- the U.S. (Israel's biggest backer) has only to look to its own history of violence against its Native American population. All one has to do is drive through New Mexico or Arizona to witness the continual devastating effects of this genocide.

At any rate, Israel is now facing perhaps its most uncertain time since the Yom Kippur War. With the Arab Spring opening the door for more Islamist-leaning governments that don't necessarily intend to honor a long-standing detente with the Jewish state, Israel is facing an existential crisis. However, government-sanctioned suppression of news reports that criticize the ruling party is not the way to go about protecting itself. Censorship of this kind is what prompted millions in the Arab World to take to the streets in demand of greater freedoms. If the Israeli government continues to suppress dissenting views in its media and legislation as seems to be occurring, could an Israeli spring be next? It's doubtful but not totally outside the realm of possibility. Of greater probability though is a third intifada as Palestinians and Israeli Arabs choose to follow the lead of their brothers and sisters in Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, and elsewhere in the Arab World. If this were to happen, Israel would find itself in serious trouble indeed.

Ciao.