Pro-Netanyahu daily ‘announces’ end of segregation in spoof

Noam Sheizaf By Noam Sheizaf February 22, 2012 | Edit

A group of artists have replaced the front page in hundreds of copies of the Israel Hayom daily paper. The new headline declared that the separation regime in occupied Hebron is ending.

An anonymous group that identified itself only as “artists for Israel tomorrow” has distributed hundreds of copies of a “utopian” version of Israel Hayom [“Israel Today”], with a cover story announcing the end of the limitations of freedom of movement for Palestinians in occupied Hebron.

Israel Hayom is the most widely read paper in Israel. It is distributed for free, and at considerable losses, at the expense of gambling billionaire Sheldon Adelson, a conservative American Jew and a personal friend of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The paper is known for its blunt support of the government. Recently, it was revealed that the top political pundit for the paper is also employed on a yearly contract of NIS 50,000 by the Prime Minister’s Office.

The artists printed a double spread and placed it in a way that replaced the first and last pages of hundreds of copies of Israel Hayom, which are distributed in train stations and other central locations. They used the exact same logo, outline and color scheme as the original paper. The top headline reads “End of Separation.” It then follows:

Exclusive: Defense Minister has ordered to stop the separation in the streets of Hebron. [President] Obama: “we didn’t fight ethnic segregation in the United States only to have it brought back by Israel.”

As I reported here in the past, there are increasing limitations on the freedom of movement for Palestinians in the part of Hebron (el-Khalil) where settlers live. Settler houses are scattered among those belonging to Palestinians, and as consequence, the army presence in this part of the city is the heaviest in the West Bank. You can see a picture of the central Shuhada street, segregated between Jews and Arabs, here.

A protest against colonization and segregation in Hebron will take place this Friday.

Other items on the front page of the fake paper “announced” the renewal of affordable housing projects in Israel, limits on salaries for executives, and the signing of an Arab soccer star in Beitar Jerusalem, a team known for its racist fans.

The weather forecast was “partly cloudy.”

Here are the pages which replaced the front and last pages of Israel Hayom today. It has a lot of surprises; if you read Hebrew, make sure to look carefully.

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Noam Sheizaf

Noam Sheizaf is an independent journalist and editor. He was the founding executive director and editor-in-chief of +972 Magazine. Prior to joining +972, he worked for Tel Aviv’s Ha-ir local paper, Ynet, and the Maariv daily, where his last position was deputy editor of the weekend magazine. He is currently working on a number of documentary films.

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