Adalah Objects to the Harassment of the Palestinian Press in Israel by the Prime Minister’s Office

On 10 January 2002, Adalah sent a letter to the Prime Minister’s Advisor for Arab Affairs, Uri Borovsky, protesting a letter that Mr. Borovsky had sent to the editors of the Palestinian newspapers in Israel on 24 December 2001. Mr. Borovsky asked the editors to respond to allegations of incitement leveled by “many governmental bodies and ministries … and even Arab citizens of the state.” According to Mr. Borovsky, these offices and individuals had asked whether they should continue to advertise in the local Palestinian press in light of the content of some of the articles which appeared therein. The letter included articles and headlines from Palestinian newspapers regarding the occupation and other aggressive policies of the government in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which Mr. Borovsky argued “contain incitement against the state of Israel, the Prime Minister, the military, etc.”

In Adalah’s response, Adalah Staff Attorney Marwan Dalal argued that Mr. Borovsky does not have any executive power, including the authority to issue an intervention to the Palestinian press. Moreover, the letter constitutes an act of racial discrimination, as the Prime Minister’s office has never asked the Jewish press to account for the content of its articles. Governmental ministries and other bodies regularly have an obligation to advertise specifically in Arabic in the Palestinian newspapers, and in so doing, these offices greatly increase their exposure before the public. Adalah argued that if these offices discontinued advertising in the Palestinian press, they would also suffer financial losses as a result of the decreased exposure. Mr. Borovsky thus violated the government’s duty to wield its authority in both governmental and commercial matters with decency, equality and rationality.

Adalah stated that Mr. Borovsky’s intervention violated the right of the Palestinian citizen to receive information in Arabic without interference, as well as freedom of the press. Mr. Dalal advised Mr. Borovsky that if he did not desist from his activities, Adalah will be forced to take him to court in order to protect the rights of the Arabic reader and the Palestinian press in Israel.

On 4 February 2002, Adalah received a letter from the Prime Minister’s Acting Legal Advisor, Shlomith Barnea, in which she assured Adalah that Mr. Borovsky does not interfere with the decisions of the Government Advertising Agency, which coordinates all advertising issued by the government, nor does he have authority to do so. Ms. Barnea added that she agreed with Adalah regarding the duty of the government to act in decency, equality and rationality when addressing governmental as well as commercial matters.