These revelations have left hostage families increasingly frustrated with the government’s failure to secure the release of their loved ones.
These are “deep moral corruptions. “This is a fatal wound to the remaining trust between the government and the people,” he said, implying an active campaign to discredit them.
The document was published in European newspapers to circumvent Israel’s military censorship laws.
The Jewish Chronicle was embroiled in scandal after it was revealed that it had published articles based on a single, anonymous source. The freelance writer who wrote the article was fired and the article was eventually removed.
The article claimed that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by Israeli forces in the southern Gaza Strip last month, was surrounded by about 20 hostages and that a plan to smuggle Sinwar and the prisoners into Egypt had been detected. Leading Israeli security journalists have questioned the veracity of the reports.
Many prominent writers have resigned from the paper due to lack of journalistic standards.
Jonathan Freedland, Hadley Freeman and David Aaronovitch have announced that they are quitting their columns over what Freedland described as a “great shame” in the world’s oldest Jewish newspaper.
At the time, JC said it had conducted a “thorough investigation” into one of its freelance journalists, Elon Perry, “after allegations were raised about his record.”
They said they were ‘not satisfied’ with some of the author’s claims, deleted the post and ended their relationship with him.
Elon Perry told BBC News that JC “made a huge mistake in his statement.” He said he could not reveal his sources to the JC editor and described it as a “jealousy-driven witch hunt.”
Meanwhile, the Bild article was based on a different set of information documents. The content turned out to be real, but leading security journalist Ronan Bergman found that its implications had been greatly exaggerated.
It was the publication of this story that prompted an investigation by the IDF and security services and ultimately led to the arrests.
Despite the barrage of criticism he faces, few believe the scandal will be fatal to Netanyahu’s premiership. He is already facing several court cases over allegations of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, which he denies, but remains in power with the support of a coalition of far-right and religious parties.
“It’s not like there are charges on which you can say, ‘We haven’t raised this against the prime minister yet. This will bring him down,’” says Anshel Pfeffer, a leading commentator for the Haaretz newspaper.
He said there were no signs the government would fall. “Their argument was that he was a victim of a group of lawyers and journalists, and now they are adding that the security services are also out to get him.”
Netanyahu has sought to distance himself from the allegations, saying the arrested spokesman never had access to classified information.
Nonetheless, this is a growing scandal that will further damage already deteriorating relations between the government and the hostages’ families.
