Ha’aretz:

Ha’aretz has long had a reputation as Israel’s most distinguished newspaper, read by the economic, political, and intellectual elites. It’s language and the lack of a sensationalist front page are among the factors that make it the secular Hebrew language daily with the smallest circulation. It is also the most left of center of the major papers, which says something about the capacity of the country’s elites to read and vote on different planes.

 It is easy to imagine the paper’s editors thinking of themselves as the conscience of the country. They frequently print long and detailed articles by Amira Hass, which typically portray the misery of Palestinians having to deal with Israeli checkpoints, military incursions, and insults by Jewish soldiers and civilians. Ms Hass used to reside in Gaza, but since that became too dicey even for her she moved to Ramallah.

Gideon Levy is a prominent contributor to the Op-Ed page, often writing about the clumsiness of the IDF, and the damage it does to Israel’s image and existence.

On February 24th, the editors covered the top half of page one of their Friday edition (the most prominent spot in the week) with an article by David Grossman that told about the death due to police malfeasance or brutality of a Palestinian who had entered Israel illegally. Read more