A series of Likud party ministers and Knesset members have joined a boycott of Channel 12 announcing in a public letter that they will no longer accept interviews due to the channel’s reporting on the Sde Teman affair, which was referred to by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “one of the worst public diplomacy attacks in the country’s history.”
The boycott is being amplified by right-wing, pro-Netanyahu Channel 14, both on-screen and on the social media of network presenters.
Last week, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi announced that he will boycott Channel 12 until the network “issues a clear and public apology” to IDF reservists, after the channel leaked footage allegedly showing the soldiers abusing a Palestinian detainee at Sde Teiman detention center.
Following the leak, an indictment against the soldiers said that they beat the detainee, dragged him across the floor, stepped on him, and used a taser against him. It also said that one reservist stabbed the detainee in the buttocks, causing rectal injury. The detainee suffered broken ribs and a perforated colon.
Likud ministers who have joined the Channel boycott are Education Minister Yoav Kisch, Economy Minister Nir Barkat, Social Equality Minister May Golan and Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel, as well as MKs Avichai Boaron and Hanoch Milwidsky, who is suspected of sexual assault.
In their public letter, ministers have demanded significant action against Channel 12 journalist Guy Peleg, who leaked the footage, and anyone involved in spreading what they claim to be a “false narrative.”
Haaretz Weekly
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The Likud officials who signed onto a boycott letter accuse the channel of harming the IDF soldiers and demand that its executives issue an apology and remove all publications concerning the reservists.
“Until you do so, we ask not to be approached with any interview or appearance offers on Channel 12. Any such request will be met with our refusal,” the letter said.
The letter follows a call from Karhi for all government ministers and Knesset lawmakers who “cherish IDF fighters” to join his boycott. Karhi had said that in recent years, Channel 12 has led “a consistent line of scaremongering, silencing and lies.”
Economy Minister Nir Barkat declared last week during an interview on Channel 14’s flagship show, The Patriots, that he will establish a fund to legally assist right-wing activists sued by Channel 12 News, after Israeli journalist Guy Peleg filed defamation lawsuits against four Channel 14 commentators who labeled Peleg’s report as “blood libel against the IDF soldiers.”
In May, civil society organizations filed a petition with the High Court against the channel, alleging that hundreds of Channel 14 statements amounted to incitement to genocide, violence and racism.
The groups said Channel 14 has become “an engine of incitement to war crimes, violence, and racism.” Their petition examples from broadcasts, like when panelist Itamar Flesichmannn said, “Now it really needs to be total annihilation. We shouldn’t be afraid of terms like humanitarian disaster;” or comments from presenter Shimon Riklin’s, “Gaza, as it exists today, must be wiped out.”
Journalist Yinon Magal – who hosts The Patriots, had likened fires that killed dozens of Palestinians in Gaza to celebratory Lag Ba’Omer bonfires.
The presenters of Channel 14, who support the boycott, published a survey showing that no less than 95 percent of Likud voters support the ministers’ decision to stop being interviewed on the channel.
In response, Channel 12 said that “the boycott is a reaction” to the channel’s recent investigative reports “about the conduct of Likud ministers, and not for any other imagined reason.”