Hundreds Facing Axe at Israel’s Ma’ariv

By Haaretz September 20, 2012

Just before the Yom Kippur, hundreds if not thousands of workers at the Maariv daily newspaper will be out of work. Many may also not receive the severance pay or pensions they thought they had coming. Maariv’s journalists union said they would strike beginning on Monday and stop the paper from publishing on Tuesday morning.

Shlomo Ben-Zvi, whose Hirsch Media firm publishes the right-leaning nationalist paper Makor Rishon, will buy the Maariv daily newspaper for NIS 40 million. The deal with Nochi Dankner’s IDB Holdings was finalized Thursday morning, and Ben Zvi will pay the sum in a number of payments over the next year.

On Thursday, IDB asked the Tel Aviv District Court for protection from its creditors, but Judge Varda Alshech asked for clarifications and has yet to rule. Maariv said it owes creditors some NIS 400 million.

For more, go to Haaretz.com

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