On April 1, 2025, Zulat for Equality and Human Rights held a conference in with Haaretz newspaper about the government’s campaign to eliminate free media and harm democracy.

Zulat president Zehava Galon, said in the opening address:

“I’m pleased with tonight’s joint conference with Haaretz newspaper. I assume you’ve seen the weekend supplement cover. This is a cover that no other newspaper in Israel would dare to publish, and this despite the government’s attempts to financially destroy Haaretz.

And no, Minister Karhi, this is not incitement, this is fearless media with a moral compass.

At the beginning of my remarks, I call to return all hostages, withdraw from Gaza, and end the war!

Without free media — there is no democracy.

And I want to be very clear: if they succeed in taking over the media, as they succeeded in taking over the police, then the level of journalism in Israel will be, like the police’s success metrics, in dealing with crime.

We must not let the media fall like the police fell.

We are in the most turbulent period there has ever been here. Revelation chasing revelation, chasing scandal, chasing investigation. And throughout this period, while Prime Minister Netanyahu testifies in court about his attempts to shape the Israeli media market in his image, he continues to cast a reign of terror on media outlets and journalists who don’t align with him, in other words, who don’t serve him, are marked as dangerous, as Kaplanists, God forbid.

His messenger, Communications Minister Karhi, promotes legislation to make the media submissive and policed. Meanwhile, he favors the propaganda and hate channel, Channel 14, and uses it as he tried to use Yedioth Ahronoth and as he used Walla site when it was owned by Shaul Elovitch, when the goal is the same: enhancing his political power, strengthening his public image for another election campaign, and inciting against his political rivals. And it works. The mafia-like threat reaches everyone who needed to receive it.

Thus we have media employing mouthpieces as “so called” commentators. Because clearly every panel with journalists, topic experts, and commentators also needs a representative from the message machine of the (Prime Minister’s) office.

Thus we have media employing journalists who are dictated to from above, and still always threatened with closure, because the Prime Minister’s Office likes them always weak, always afraid.

Thus we also have media that don’t even try to pretend. I pity them the most.

What haven’t we seen?

First they told us Qatar is a terror state and human rights organizations are “foreign-funded,”

Then they told us Qatar is great and there’s no problem receiving money from a foreign state while passing security secrets from hand to hand, and now this is under investigation,

First we had to destroy Hamas, then fund it, and now destroy it again.

First they explained we’re one step from absolute victory, then explained we still have a few steps to go.

It’s easy to mock these things, because they truly are ridiculous. But the goal of this media that Netanyahu cultivates is not just to paint black as white and war as peace. This media is primarily a weapon.

When speaking of ‘the poison machine,’ we’re not just talking about internet idiots who take it upon themselves to spread conspiracies. We’re also talking about television hosts who mark for hundreds of thousands of viewers who their enemies are today. We’re talking about journalists, supposedly, who do so called investigations on those supposedly marked by Netanyahu’s office. We’re talking about an entire body of people who will talk day and night about the new enemy, what the investigation revealed, and what immense corruption a pergola is (reference to attempts to undermine the president of the Supreme Court).

But they won’t talk about settler violence and how the poisonous ideas of Jewish supremacy seep from occupied territories to laws the Knesset promotes, seeking to exclude (Israeli) Arab candidates and (Israeli) Arab parties from the political game.

Recently, Education Minister Yoav Kisch decided to revoke the Israel Prize in Sociology from Prof. Eva Illouz because she dared express a political opinion different from his.

Kisch added he would consider the award again if Illouz “chooses to apologize publicly.”

This caught my eye. Because this is the essence of dictatorship practice. Sir Kisch, may his glory be exalted, will deign to consider again, if Eva Illouz agrees to grovel and beat her chest. Kisch doesn’t matter. Eva Illouz will live without the honor of collecting the prize from his sweaty hands. Kisch, at most, is a forgotten zero. He’s just one more member  of the hive of Netanyahu’s submissive servants like Israel Katz, Avi Dichter, Miri Regev, and Nir Barkat. And the list goes on…

These are people who don’t want governability. They want an entire country of zeros in their image. Like ‘Being John Malkovich,’ only with Yoav Kisch’s face.

That’s why they voted to change the Judicial Selection Committee composition: to get loyal judges in their image.

That’s why they seek to dismiss Gali Baharav-Miara and Ronen Bar: to get an Attorney General and Shin Bet head in their image.

That’s why they voted for government appointment of the Public Complaints Commissioner against judges, for dismissing legal advisors in government ministries, for temporary appointments of associates to senior positions, and against establishing a state commission of inquiry for the October 7 massacre, because they want a political committee of loyalists in their image, so they can control it,

And that’s how they want to see Israeli media.

And this is dangerous. Because a life-loving democratic state needs independent media like air for breathing.

Because prime ministers who are only fed their own messages will eventually believe the lies they feed the public. These are worse prime ministers, dug deeper in bubbles, stuck in conceptions.

And we’ve already seen, as in Hungary, that no democracy is immune to threats from within. When countries stopped being democratic, there was no safe way back. In the horrific October 7 massacre, we learned Israel cannot be weak. And it cannot allow termites to eat it from within.

And precisely because of this, the battle for public broadcasting and free media is critical.

We will win it too.

Democracy will win!”

Watch (Hebrew, no subtitles):

 

Other Notable Participants’ Remarks

Einat Ovadia, Zulat CEO:

“The government’s goal is to educate the public that it’s illegitimate to criticize the government, and the flood of legislation initiatives against the media aims to subvert the citizens’ ability to form independent opinions based on data and truth about their public officials’ performance. This undermines the ability to form free opinions and ensure free elections.”

Former Supreme Court Justice Ayala Prokatzia said:

“Netanyahu should have been disqualified, the time has come to consider civil disobedience” and added that “the media is democracy’s oxygen pipeline. This takeover aims to weaken all the components that make up our democracy — those with a degree of independence, power, and restraint. The result is that we see a whole range of injuries already committed — and potential injuries still to come.”

Razi Barkai,  journalist:

“Channel 14 is not a legitimate channel. It’s a propaganda channel from A to Z.” Journalist Omri Assenheim added that PM Netanyahu’s live broadcasts are wrong: “The judicial and media Takeovers are happening because Netanyahu feels he is the state.”

Anat Saragusti, head of press freedom at the Israeli Journalists’ Organization: “Even if not all laws pass, the intimidation and chilling effect already exist and are hard to measure. We can’t know how much self-censorship exists.”

Haaretz journalist Jackie Khoury addressed occupation coverage: “They say there was disillusionment after October 7, but how much did we cover the occupation before then? The story of Palestinians and Arab society — it’s not that we just discovered something wrong now. Things started much earlier.”

Hadas Klein:

“I call it a ‘poison organization’ not a ‘machine.’ A machine is something cute with screws, but I experience this as something very organized with very large funds and reach everywhere.”

Advocate Ronen Reingold:

“When ads for this conference appeared, Minister Karhi also published his own Ad. The interesting message there was that they’re actually trying to diversify media and improve it. This reminded me of the book ‘1984.’ The intent of the legislative flood is opposite to Karhi’s words, and it is to attack freedom of expression and free media.”