Israel Lawmakers Push Move To Close Sheldon Adelson’s Paper
Image by getty images
Israeli lawmakers approved in a preliminary vote a bill that would shut down a free Israeli daily owned by American billionaire Sheldon Adelson.
The vote on the bill intended to shut down the Israel Hayom newspaper passed its first reading by a vote of 43 to 23. There are 120 lawmakers in the Knesset.
The bill, sponsored by Labor party lawmaker Eitan Cabel, now goes to the Knesset House Committee, where it will be sent to another Knesset committee to be refined for the second and third Knesset plenum votes.
While the bill targets all newspapers that are distributed for free, it has been clear its intent is to close down the Adelson-owned newspaper, which is known as a shill for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The bill would make it illegal to distribute a full-size newspaper six days a week free of charge.
“This is a bill in favor of pluralism and multiple opinions. It is a battle so that, in a few years, we do not become a country with only one newspaper. Sheldon Adelson wants to bury a market that is fighting for its life,” Cabel told the lawmakers. “Israel Hayom does not exist because of its success as a newspaper, but because of the hundreds of millions in gambling funds that are funneled to it from overseas. Does anyone in this room honestly think that this is how a model for a normal newspaper looks? That this is how fair competition looks?”
“What is this? Since when do parliaments close newspapers? Are we bolsheviks?” said Likud party Moshe Feiglin, who has been the object of significant criticism in the newspaper.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
