Outlet profile

Haaretz

Israeli liberal-left

Owned bySchocken family (75%, led by publisher Amos Schocken); Russian-Israeli businessman Leonid Nevzlin (25%)

FundingPrimarily paid subscriptions (print and digital paywall, introduced 2012–2013); advertising; privately owned with no state funding

On the administrationbroadly critical

Background

Haaretz (Hebrew for 'The Land') was founded in 1919 in Jerusalem by Jewish journalists who had immigrated from Russia, making it Israel's oldest continuously published daily newspaper. It developed a distinctly liberal character under editor Moshe Gluecksohn during the 1920s and 1930s, and in 1939 was purchased by Salman Schocken, a German-Jewish businessman who had fled Nazi Germany. Salman's son Gershom Schocken served as editor for 51 years until his death in 1990, cementing the paper's identity as a voice of secular liberal Zionism and advocacy for territorial compromise with Palestinians. In 2011, Russian-Israeli businessman and former Yukos oil executive Leonid Nevzlin bought a 20% stake in the paper; that share grew to 25% after the Schocken family bought out the German publisher M. DuMont Schauberg in 2019. Haaretz was among the first Israeli outlets to institute a digital paywall, in 2012–2013, and subscriptions now account for the majority of its revenue. The paper has maintained a persistent editorial critique of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing coalitions. In November 2024, the Israeli government voted unanimously to sanction Haaretz — cutting off government advertising, subscriptions, and official communications — after publisher Amos Schocken made remarks at a London conference that Netanyahu's cabinet characterized as sympathetic to Palestinian violence; the boycott drew condemnation from the Committee to Protect Journalists and other press-freedom organizations.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-07-25; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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