Israeli media

The front pages of newspapers in Israel at a shop in Jerusalem during the judicial overhaul, July 25, 2023. (Chaim Goldbeg/Flash90)

Breaking new records, Israel sees unprecedented spike in media censorship

In 2024, Israel's military censor banned 1,635 articles from publication and partially redacted another 6,265 — part of a wider assault on freedom of press.

By Haggai Matar May 2, 2025

A woman in Jerusalem watches Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speak at a press conference on her TV, September 28, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The ‘pact of silence’ between Israelis and their media

Israel’s long-subservient media has spent the past year imbuing the public with a sense of righteousness over the Gaza war. Reversing this indoctrination, says media observer Oren Persico, could take decades.

By Edo Konrad October 16, 2024

Members of the Turkish media seen during clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians after Friday prayers in East Jerusalem, December 15, 2023. [Nati Shohat/Flash90]

Israeli military censor bans highest number of articles in over a decade

The sharp rise in media censorship in 2023 comes as the Israeli government further undermines press freedoms, especially amid the Gaza war.

By Haggai Matar May 20, 2024

Latest

Journalists reports outside a protest encampment for Palestine at Columbia University, New York, April 23, 2024. (Pamela Drew/CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED)

Israeli media’s inevitable hysteria over U.S. campus protests

The media’s unbending self-censorship in covering Gaza has made Israelis incapable of seeing foreign criticism as anything other than antisemitism.

By Anat Saragusti April 29, 2024

Bezalel Smotrich speaks with Channel 12 News anchor Dana Weiss during the conference of Channel 12/the Israeli Television News Company in Tel Aviv, September 5, 2019. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Journalism out, hasbara in: How Israeli TV news joined the Gaza war effort

Tectonic shifts in Israeli broadcasting have played a key role in shaping the country’s nationalist and militaristic discourse, with Oct. 7 marking their apex.

By Eyal Lurie-Pardes March 6, 2024

IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi gives a statement to the media at an army base in southern Israel, December 26, 2023. (Flash90)

How Israeli journalists carry out PR for the army

Military reporters at Israel’s major news outlets consistently neglect to investigate the army and its conduct. October 7 is their failure too.

By Sebastian Ben Daniel (John Brown) February 19, 2024

Palestinians take part in a protest against the killing of journalist Yasser Murtaja near the Israel-Gaza fence, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, April 8, 2018. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

How a hasbara group’s sham investigation put Gaza journalists in the firing line

Honest Reporting’s claims against Palestinian photographers were echoed by Israeli leaders and media. But they’re factually and journalistically unfounded.

By Oren Ziv November 13, 2023

Dr. Ahmad Mahajna in Petah Tikva, December 14, 2022. (Oren Ziv)

A right-wing witch hunt got a Palestinian doctor suspended. Now the truth emerges

Ahmad Mahajna is still fighting for his job at a Jerusalem hospital following a smear campaign that falsely accused him of supporting terrorism.

By Oren Ziv December 14, 2022

Hafez Hureini (center) during a hearing in Ofer Military Court, September 19, 2022. (Oren Ziv)

Armed settlers assaulted a Palestinian man. Guess who’s in jail?

Hafez Hureini had both his arms broken by settlers while he was working on his land. Now he's in detention, while his attackers remain free.

By Oren Ziv September 19, 2022

Israeli settlers armed with a rifle and metal bars confront Palestinian farmers near the village of A-Tuwani in the South Hebron Hills, occupied West Bank, September 13, 2022. (Screenshot from a video of the incident)

How Israeli media reported a ‘lynching’ that never happened

Armed Israeli settlers attacked a group of farmers, then told the media they were ambushed by 30 Palestinians. Here's what really happened.

By Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham September 15, 2022

Now 14's editorial team. (Screenshot of Now 14 promotional video)

I spent a week watching the Israeli Fox News. Here’s what I learned

Now 14 is a look into the right’s paranoid stream of consciousness, which loathes progressives, loves settlements, and remains loyal to King Bibi.

By Noam Sheizaf January 18, 2022

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with the media as he views construction work on the fence between Israel and Jordan in the Arabah valley, southern Israel, February 9, 2016. (Marc Israel Sellem/POOL)

The Bibi effect: How Israeli media became a far-right echo chamber

Netanyahu turned much of the Israeli press into his personal fiefdom during his 12 years in power — with drastic consequences that resonate to this day.

By Pnina Pfeuffer November 24, 2021

+972 and Local Call journalist Basil al-Adraa.

Israel’s top news show falsely accuses +972 writer of framing settlers for arson

Channel 12 claims Basil al-Adraa set a structure on fire during a settler pogrom on a Palestinian village. The evidence shows absolutely nothing of the sort.

By Oren Ziv October 7, 2021