Britain’s Daily Telegraph is being acquired by a German-based media giant — and now its journalists are formally expected to support Israel.

The Culture Secretary, Lisa Nandy, has cleared the takeover by Axel Springer SE. Its CEO, Mathias Döpfner, has written to Telegraph staff “outlining his commitment” to the paper.

An employee at The Telegraph has sent me that letter. It is deeply revealing.

• READ MORE: Other Palestine and Iran media reports
• Owen Jones on Substack

Döpfner insists that the values of The Telegraph and the publishing house founded by late tycoon Axel Springer — dubbed “Germany’s Rupert Murdoch” — are aligned. They are, he says, “Freedom, free markets, individual freedom and freedom of speech”.

He goes further. Axel Springer, he explains, is “guided by a clear editorial compass.” Its employees are rooted in its “Essentials” — “core values to which we are firmly committed”.

There is, he adds, “no such thing as neutral journalism”: only journalism that is “pluralistic and surprising, fair, and fact-based.”

And yet, having invoked “freedom of speech” as a foundational principle, he insists these Essentials are not partisan — but rather “define a socio-political framework within which maximum journalistic freedom and intellectual independence can flourish.”

‘We support the right of Israel to exist’
Döpfner then sets out those ‘Essentials’:

1. We stand for freedom, freedom of expression, the rule of law, and democracy.
2. We support the right of Israel to exist and oppose all forms of antisemitism.
3. We advocate the transatlantic alliance between the United States and Europe.
4. We uphold the principles of a free-market economy.
5. We reject political and religious extremism, as well as all forms of discrimination.

Note where “we support the right of Israel to exist” sits: second.

‘Freedom’ — within limits
Döpfner emphasises that editorial independence will be protected, including from pressure by politicians, celebrities, or advertisers. “I value debate in the spirit of pluralism and freedom of expression,” he writes.

But the description of the Essentials is, frankly, Orwellian.

It is not reconcilable to argue that these tenets create the conditions for “maximum journalistic freedom” while simultaneously requiring adherence to a political position on a specific foreign state.

Out of 193 UN member states, only one is singled out in this way.

No state has a “right to exist” under international law. Peoples have a right to self-determination — a right denied, in this case, by Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land, and by subjecting its people to apartheid, colonisation and genocide.

A Telegraph journalist put it to me bluntly:

To be firmly told by our new parent company-to-be’s CEO that the second most important guiding principle is affirming the right of a country committing genocide and ethnic cleansing is more than a little concerning.

It also raises the question of how any reporting from the paper can be considered factual if that is our core principle.

As they note, this principle comes before any explicit rejection of discrimination.

What ‘Israel’s right to exist’ means in practice
In practice, the phrase “Israel’s right to exist” has been repeatedly deployed by Israel’s cheerleaders across the West to justify Israel’s crimes — from occupation and colonisation to apartheid and, now, mass destruction in Gaza.

It is also telling what is not said. The Essentials do not prohibit racism in general, despite later rejecting “all forms of discrimination”. There is no explicit rejection of Islamophobia, for example, or anti-Arab racism.

Instead, “oppose all forms of antisemitism” is fused directly with “support the right of Israel to exist”.

That conflation matters.

Because we know that defenders of Israel have repeatedly blurred the line between antisemitism and opposition to the actions of the Israeli state.

So how, exactly, might Axel Springer SE interpret “oppose all forms of antisemitism”?

‘Free Palestine’ is a ‘pro-Hamas topic’
There are very strong clues, let’s put it that way.

The late Axel Springer himself declared:

It is the task of our generation to stand firmly by Israel’s side, even if this causes difficulties for our policies elsewhere.

He further added:

The country does not need encouragement, but advocacy, wherever and whenever it can be provided – in the European Community, in the United Nations, in diplomatic relations, at work, in the family.

He described this as a “German duty”.

In June 2021, when employees complained about the Israeli flag being raised at company headquarters, Mathias Döpfner responded:

I think, and I’m being very frank with you, a person who has an issue with an Israeli flag being raised for one week here, after antisemitic demonstrations, should look for a new job.

He was referring to demonstrations against Israel’s assault on Gaza that May.

In October 2023, a Lebanese employee at Welt TV — part of the Axel Springer empire — was dismissed: he says it was after he challenged the outlet’s pro-Israel positions. Axel Springer SE refuse to comment on “individual personnel matters”.

In an internal email which was leaked that year, Döpfner reportedly summarised his political worldview with the phrase: “Zionism über alles” — “Zionism above all.”

He has penned repeated pro-Israel polemics. “Will we stand with Israel against the enemies of freedom despite the risks, or will we allow fear and opportunism to prevail?” he wrote in October 2023, demanding “massive, unstiting political, financial and military support”.

On a podcast for his employees, Döpfner claimed “a majority on Instagram, on other social media, and in particular on TikTok, took sides for the Hamas’ actions.” He argued that “an almost global wave of Anti-Semitism suddenly showed its ugly face”, which he described as a shock, despite knowing “that it is here and there, well hidden or presented in a politically correct manner as Anti-Zionism or “Woke-ism” or whatever.”

And he said something deeply revealing about TikTok:

“Concretely, more than 4 million posts until today have been published under the hashtag of #FreePalestine or other kind of pro-Hamas topics. And only 50,000 something, 53,000 posts basically standing by Israel.”

“Free Palestine”, he argued, was a “kind of pro-Hamas topic”.

Conflating antisemitism with critique of Israel
When Israel launched its first war on Iran last June, Döpfner declared it was “surprising that Israel is not being celebrated worldwide for its historic, extremely precise and necessary strike.” Instead, he claimed:

the public response is dominated by anti-Israel propaganda. The intelligence and precision of Israel’s actions are not admired but are instead used here and there to perpetuate blatantly antisemitic stereotypes. This attitude is characterised not only by racist undertones, but also by a strange self-forgetfulness.

In other words, he directly conflated critique of Israel’s war with antisemitism.

A few months ago, he quoted claims about atrocities committed on October 7th which included: “A first responder testified before the Knesset that he had seen the severed skulls of three children.” The claims that Israeli children were beheaded have been comprehensively debunked.

He went on to write that:

justified criticism of decisions made by an Israeli government is mixed with deep-rooted hatred of Jews and that, as a result, instead of an obvious global wave of compassion and solidarity, a global wave of cold-heartedness and increasingly aggressive anti-Semitism has emerged.

The piece further criticised the German government — Israel’s most loyal European defender — for “massively” restricting arms sales to Israel. Tellingly, he said that decision meant that “From now on, unconditional support for Israel’s right to exist is effectively subject to conditions.”

He described the recognition of Palestinian statehood “as a reward for the barbarism of October 7″.

Last October, Al Jazeera published an investigation into German tabloid Bild, a cornerstone of Axel Springer SE, headlined “The Story of Israel’s Propaganda Machine Specialising in Anti-Palestinian Incitement’.

Al Jazeera reported that the newspaper had suggested that a Palestinian journalist killed by Israel was a “terrorist”, denied famine in Gaza, and published a lengthy report it claimed had been found on the computer of late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. It transpired that the document was old, not authored by Sinwar, and had reportedly been leaked by Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.

The newspaper, reported Al Jazeera, had also “consistently demonised pro-Gaza demonstrators in Germany, labelling them as “mobs”, “Israel-haters”, and “anti-Semites”.

Israel’s supporters in the West have launched the biggest assault on free speech since the height of McCarthyism.

We can see where the Telegraph’s new owners stand on that.

Extracted and republished from Owen Jones’ article on his Battlelines substack. Read the full article here.

COMMENTARY: By Cole Martin

A ceasefire in Gaza last week brought scenes reminiscent of January’s brief pause — tears, relief, exhaustion and devastation as families reunited after months, years and even decades in captivity.

Others were exiled or discovered their entire family had been killed; thousands returned to their homes in northern Gaza, others to rubble – but just like last time, it didn’t last.

Already Israeli leadership has been calling for a renewed onslaught in Gaza and have continued airstrikes across the strip, including more than 100 strikes on Sunday alone. More than 50 Palestinians were killed, including a family of 11, seven of whom were children, in one strike on a bus.

• READ MORE: After ICJ ruling, can UN relief agency UNRWA resume full Gaza operations?
  
• Palestine will continue to ‘pursue justice’ against Israel at ICC and ICJ, says Hague ambassador
• Other Cole Martin articles

The prevention of food, water, aid and critical infrastructure continues; the borders remain closed; and across the rest of Palestine, Israel’s brutal system of domination, apartheid and displacement continues.

It’s impossible to ignore two critical elements that this deal omitted: a failure to address the root causes and a jarring lack of international accountability.

Despite human rights organisations, the UN General Assembly and the International Court of Justice all ruling Israel’s occupation is illegal, and their practices constitute apartheid, world leaders including New Zealand have refused to act, let alone sought to prevent genocide in Gaza.

I returned to Aotearoa this week after six months documenting and reporting from the occupied West Bank, where Israel continues its campaign of violent displacement and colonial expansion. Almost everyone I know has tasted the terror of Israeli domination.

Broke into bedroom
My Arabic tutor described how soldiers broke into her bedroom at night to interrogate her family about a man they didn’t even know. My climbing partner warned you can be shot for climbing in the wrong place, with most of their crags now inaccessible.

I visited Jerusalem with a friend who scored a one-day permit. He lives in Bethlehem, just a half-hour away, but they’re barred from visiting and must return by midnight; a process involving biometric scanners and intrusive searches.

And I was based in Aida refugee camp, one of dozens across the land where thousands of families have lived since their violent displacement in 1948 — the ethnic cleansing which saw 750,000 expelled, 15,000 killed and 530 villages destroyed.

Refused the right to return, their homes are now dormant ruins in “nature reserves” or inhabited by Israeli families. Israel was built on the land, farms, businesses and stolen wealth of these families — and countless more who remain as “present absentees” within the state of Israel.

My friend Yacoub lives just 10 minutes from his childhood home, yet he is denied return.

More than 9100 Palestinians remain in Israeli captivity, including more than 400 children – thousands without charge or trial. But even “trials” bring no justice.

I visited the Ofer military courts and witnessed a corrupt system designed to funnel Palestinians to prison based on extortion, plea bargains and “secret evidence” which the detainee and lawyer aren’t allowed to see. Meanwhile, Israeli settlers receive full legal rights in Israeli civil courts; two vastly different legal systems based on race — if the settler is arrested at all.

Almost everyone I met has experienced detention firsthand or through a close family member — involving beatings, humiliation, starvation and threats. A nurse my age humorously asked why I wasn’t married yet; when I asked the same, he explained he’d only recently left years of Israeli captivity.

Settlers’ impunity
In July, fundamentalist settler Yinon Levy shot dead my friend Awdah Hathaleen on camera, in broad daylight. Authorities arrested more than 20 of Awdah’s family, withheld his body for over 10 days, then barred people from attending the funeral.

His killer was free within five days, back harassing the family, and has established an illegal settlement in the middle of their village — destroying homes, olive groves, water and electrical infrastructure with no repercussions.

I visited countless communities across the West Bank who face daily harassment, violence and incursions from Israeli settlers, police and military. Settlements continue to expand, preventing Palestinians from reaching their land.

Almost 900 checkpoints, roadblocks and settler-only roads restrict movement between towns and cities, including urgent medical access. Israel controls the water, funnelling over 80% to their colonies while heavily limiting access to Palestinian communities.

All of this continues, none of it is halted by the “ceasefire”; and most of it will escalate as soldiers leave Gaza and look to exert their dominance elsewhere.

I’m truly fearful for my friends in the West Bank, particularly as Israel openly threatens annexation. A peace deal that ignores these realities is no peace deal.

Resilience and courage
But I also witnessed resilience and courageous persistence. Palestinian civil society and individuals have spent decades committed to creative non-violence in the face of these atrocities — from court battles to academia, education, art, demonstrations, general strikes, hīkoi (marches), sit-ins, civil disobedience.

These are the overlooked stories that don’t make catchy headlines, but their success depends on the international community to provide accountability. Without global support, Palestinians have been refused their right to self-defence, resistance and self-determination.

If we really care about peace, we need to support justice. To talk about peace without liberation is to suggest submission to a system of displacement, imprisonment, violence and erasure.

This is not the time to turn away, this is the time to ensure that international law is upheld, that Palestinians are given their dignity, self-determination, right to return and reparations for the horror they’ve faced.

Cole Martin is an independent New Zealand photojournalist who has been based in the occupied West Bank for six months and a contributor to Asia Pacific Report. This article was first published by the The Spinoff and is republished with the author’s permission.

The decision of the International Court of Justice that Israeli settlements on Palestinian land are illegal demands immediate action from the New Zealand government, says a national advocacy group.

The ICJ in the Hague found in a landmark but non-binding advisory ruling on Friday that “Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the regime associated with them, have been established and are being maintained in violation of international law”.

The court said that the UN Security Council, the General Assembly and all states had an obligation not to recognise the occupation as legal and not to give aid or support toward Israel in maintaining it.

• READ MORE: Palestinians urge world to end Israel’s illegal occupation after ICJ ruling
• Why ICJ ruling against Israel’s settlement policies will be hard to ignore
• Other Israel’s War on Gaza reports

In a statement today, the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) said the NZ government should immediately:

• impose a ban on the importation of all products from the illegal Israeli settlements; and
• direct NZ’s Superfund, Accident Compensation Commission (ACC) and Kiwisaver funds to divest from companies identified by the United Nations Human Rights Council as complicit in the building and maintenance of these settlements.

The recently updated database is here.

The ICJ ruling confirmed what the UN Security Council found in passing resolution 2334 in 2016.

This resolution was co-sponsored by New Zealand, which had a place on the Security Council at the time under a National-led government.

The United Nations Security Council stated that, in the occupied Palestinian territories, Israeli settlements had “no legal validity” and constituted “a flagrant violation under international law”.

It said they were a “major obstacle to the achievement of the two-state solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace” in the Middle East.

ICJ-Israel Occupied territories resolution.   Video: Al Jazeera

The ICJ ruling reinforced the UN resolution and the need for government action, the PSNA statement said.

“New Zealand, which co-sponsored the UN resolution in 2016 should lead the way on this,” said PSNA national chair John Minto.

“We need to put our money where our mouth is — especially since the current far-right Israeli government has said its ‘top priority’ is to push ahead with more illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land”.

New Zealanders have been holding national rallies in protest over Israel’s war on Gaza for nine months and protesters were expected to be out in their thousands this weekend to demand government action.

• Details of this weekend’s NZ protests

The New Zealand government’s silence on the thousands of Palestinian deaths in the ongoing Gaza conflict with Israel fails the Palestinian people and perpetuates injustice, as this Newsroom article reports.

The recent Israeli incursion into Gaza (Breaking Dawn) has killed 49 Palestinians, including 17 children. Not that many New Zealanders would know much about this.

It has received little coverage by the New Zealand press, and the New Zealand government has made no public comments on the situation.

It was only a year ago that Israel attacked Gaza under the banner Operation Guardian of the Walls, killing more than 260 Palestinians, including 67 children.

• READ MORE: Other reports about the Palestine’s Occupied West Bank and Gaza

New Zealand, by remaining silent, in effect plays its part in giving a free pass to Israel to continue with its ongoing attacks on Gaza and the other Palestinian territories it occupies.

In 2014, Operation Protective Edge killed more than 2000 Palestinian people, including more than 500 children. Operation Cast Lead in 2008 killed some 1400 Palestinian people, including 300 children.

Operation Summer Rains and Operation Autumn Clouds in 2006 were similarly destructive in terms of the loss of Palestinian life.

Indeed, Defence for Children International estimates that 2218 Palestinian children have been killed across the Occupied Palestinian Territories since 2000. Notwithstanding the sanitising rhetoric that frames them, the deadly incursions by the Israeli State into Gaza and the Occupied West Bank has resulted in thousands of needless Palestinian deaths on their own land, since it was illegally occupied by Israel in 1967.

Is the New Zealand government’s silence because the Israeli incursions into Occupied Palestine are so commonplace they are not worthy of coverage any more? Or has the loss of Palestinian life become so normalised it fails to generate the horror the loss of Ukrainian life appropriately elicits from the New Zealand public?

NZ gives Israel ‘free pass’
New Zealand, by remaining silent, in effect plays its part in giving a free pass to Israel to continue with its ongoing attacks on Gaza and the other Palestinian territories it occupies.

This includes daily military incursions into Palestinian homes in the Occupied West Bank, resulting in ongoing loss of life.

Israel is bound by the Fourth Geneva Convention to protect the human and civil rights of the individuals living under its occupation. That Israel has been able to ignore these responsibilities enshrined in international law, and the multiple resolutions passed by the United Nations Security Council condemning its behaviour, is a failure of the international community, including New Zealand.

It is incumbent on New Zealand to firmly stand behind the Palestinian people, as our silence perpetuates the injustice, fails to hold Israel to account, and does not align with our stated principled and independent values-based approach to foreign policy.

During New Zealand’s time on the United Nations Security Council in 2015-2016, it played an important role in advancing a Resolution (UNSC 2334) to halt further illegal Israeli settlement expansion in the Occupied West Bank.

However, beyond this setting, and the once-in-a-generation opportunity to participate (1993-1994 being the last time), we do little to voice our concerns and remain largely silent.

Accordingly, it’s hard to know what motivates the New Zealand government on the conflict. Having successfully shepherded Resolution 2334 in 2016 we have failed to speak up as Israel has rapidly continued with its settlements programme in the Occupied West Bank and Occupied East Jerusalem.

8 Palestinian villages for demolition
As a result of a recent Israeli Supreme Court decision, eight Palestinian villages in Masafer Yatta in Southern Hebron, containing 1200 residents, will be demolished by Israel to secure it for a firing/security zone — which in turn will almost certainly become Israeli settlements.

Again, the New Zealand government has remained silent.

We have also failed to advance one of the key clauses of UNSC 2334, which calls on states to “distinguish, in their relevant dealings, between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967”. Practically, this implies the inclusion of a differentiated country of origin labelling regime by the member states of the United Nations.

The New Zealand government has been completely silent on this requirement.

As New Zealand governments have repeatedly said, we operate a principled and independent foreign policy. But it is clear we are failing the Palestinian people in terms of our own stated values.

We either say nothing or adopt a neutral and benign linguistic position that appears to be critical of the latest human rights abuses but fails to hold Israel to account. We talk of supporting the Peace Process (Oslo Accords 1993) and a two-state solution but fail to do anything proactively to keep this possibility alive.

One might argue there is simply nothing to be gained from New Zealand seeking to advance the resolution of the conflict. After all we are a small country, and our focus must be closer to home, so the argument goes.

But this fails to explain our involvement in Ukraine, and Afghanistan in the recent past.

Risk of ‘upsetting US’
What appears to be more relevant is the risk of upsetting our key ally the United States, which is deeply invested in the conflict and its geostrategic interest in supporting Israel at all costs.

However, this position is indefensible as it implies a severely self-interested and limited foreign policy position, one inconsistent with Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta’s early statements about adopting a values-based approach to foreign policy — which include the values of manaaki (kindness), whanaunga (connectedness), mahi tahi and kotahitanga (shared aspiration), and kaitiaki (stewardship).

The absence of a New Zealand government voice on the conflict or its carefully crafted neutral rhetoric, designed not to give offence to its close Western English-speaking alliance friends, fails the Palestinian people miserably.

It is incumbent on New Zealand to firmly stand behind the Palestinian people, as our silence perpetuates the injustice, fails to hold Israel to account, and does not align with our stated principled and independent values-based approach to foreign policy.

New Zealand police praised how an anti-government protest at Parliament unfolded today, saying there were no arrests and no trespass orders issued.

Police estimated around 1500 people attended the Freedom and Rights Coalition protest.

Those attending the event were closely watched by a large contingent of police officers, some of whom travelled to the capital from other parts of the country.

• READ MORE: Other reports on RNZ’s live protest blog

In a statement, Wellington District Commander Superintendent Corrie Parnell said the positive outcome was the result of detailed planning by police, clear communication with the protest organisers, and the behaviour of those who attended.

“We are very pleased with how people conducted themselves.”

Protesters had left Parliament’s grounds and cordons put in place were due to be lifted at 6pm, Superintendent Parnell said.

“Police would like to thank the Wellington community for their understanding with the disruption caused.”

He said police would continue to maintain “a visible presence to reassure residents, businesses and people in the area”.

New political party
Self-styled apostle Brian Tamaki, founder of the Destiny Church and leader of the protest, announced an umbrella new political party called “Freedoms NZ”.

It is a coalition of three parties which plans to become registered.

But he said he would not be standing for Parliament in next year’s general election.

Green Party MP Teanau Tuiono said he was pleased to see hundreds of people at a counter-protest against Brian Tamaki.

Addressing a crowd of about 300, he recalled a big counter-protest against Tamaki nearly two decades ago.

“Eighteen years ago, Destiny Church held their ‘Enough is enough’ march … and we had a counter-demo protest there …because they were spreading misinformation about our Rainbow community,” he said.

Wellington has just recovered from a 23-day illegal occupation of parliament grounds almost six months ago which ended with a violent clash between protesters and police.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.