Journalists in Israel: Hard Times for the Messenger Bringing Bad News

They write in the newspapers whatever they want ;

They get into beds, peeping through keyholes ;

There’s nothing that can be done ;

There’s no mercy here.

-- From the song, “My Little Journalist”

That popular song, by one of Israel’s most famous singers, is a poignant protest about the media’s apparently insatiable appetite for gossip about entertainment figures.

The song, “My Little Journalist,” by Arik Einstein, has touched a nerve in Israel at a time when all journalists, not just retailers of gossip, are suffering a steady decline in popular esteem.

Journalists have been called “poison” and “rabid dogs” by prominent politicians. A recent opinion poll placed journalists, along with politicians, last in public popularity. Soldiers were ranked first.

“It’s a hard time for journalists in Israel,” lamented Zeev Yefets, head of the Tel Aviv Assn. of Journalists. “A large number of people don’t like to read things which, while true, make them angry. They blame the newspapers, not the decision-makers. It’s going from bad to worse.”

For many journalists, matters came to a head last week when a sports writer for the afternoon newspaper Yediot Aharonot was stabbed after a soccer game involving one of the country’s most popular teams, Betar Jerusalem. The reporter, Zadok Yehezkeli, has been attacked twice in the past five months.

“We condemn the criminal act and protest the crude assault on freedom of the press, and on a journalist’s freedom to carry out his duties,” the newspaper said in an editorial.

Yediot Aharonot stationed an armed guard at Yehezkeli’s hospital room. Another sports writer, Roni Dion of the rival daily Haaretz, filed a complaint with the police after anonymous callers threatened his mother in connection with his coverage of Betar Jerusalem.

Some Israeli journalists decided to fight back. They announced that there would be no sports pages at all today, a day when sports supplements are normally published, and that newspapers will provide no news coverage of Betar Jerusalem’s games for a month.

Amnon Nadav, chairman of the National Assn. of Israeli Journalists, said the boycott is necessary because of a surge of violence against journalists. He noted that a number of newsmen had been injured in recent demonstrations by religious Jews protesting what they see as desecration of the Sabbath.

Journalist Michael Eilan published a commentary condemning the journalists’ boycott of Betar Jerusalem as “redolent of arrogance and hypocrisy” because neither the team nor its supporters were given a hearing by the journalists’ union before the action was taken.

“The sad part of it is that the decision will probably backlash against the press,” Eilan wrote. “Violence against journalists is getting worse. . . . It is part of the general faltering of democratic values in this country. But journalists must recognize that a boycott of this kind does not serve their own interests.”

Israel has long prized its free press. A recent survey found 24 dailies serving a population of little more than 4 million. Apart from national security matters, which are subject to censorship, the press is as unfettered as in the United States or Western Europe.

Ari Rath, editor of the English-language newspaper Jerusalem Post, said in an interview that Israel remains “very much a news-conscious place,” but he acknowledged that there are increasing strains between newspapers and their readers.

As in the United States, Rath said, journalists in Israel tend to reflect liberal or moderate views while a number of prominent government ministers are hard-line conservatives--creating inevitable clashes.

“There has been some poisoning of the air lately which goes beyond the normal tendency to blame the messenger for the message,” Rath said. “Journalists and editors should look more after our own conduct, which is not without blemishes.”

Zeev Chafets, a former director of the Government Press Office, said that antagonism toward the news media has been growing in Israel over the last 10 years, particularly in connection with such painful incidents as the war in Lebanon. The press was openly critical of government policy while Israelis soldiers were being killed abroad.

“The power of the press in Israel has grown tremendously in the past few years,” Chafets said. “It’s produced a certain backlash. It’s a small, intimate country and people are very touchy about invasion of privacy. The Einstein song is a direct result of it and a lot of people identify with its sentiments.”

Different Standards

Chafets noted that journalistic rules of fairness, such as those in the United States, have not been popularly accepted in Israel until recently. Journalists have been known to accept gifts and are publicly identified with politicians.

Yefets, the journalists’ union leader in Tel Aviv, said there has been a general trend against journalists in recent months.

“In the last couple of years, hatred has been directed against journalists by ministers and members of Parliament,” Yefets said. “They accuse journalists of lying when they have been quoted as saying something controversial. Pretty soon, the general public believes what they say.”