Dissident Staff at Jerusalem Post Wins Support, but Not from Owners

Some 30 senior staff members of The Jerusalem Post who quit or were fired this week in a policy dispute with publisher Yehuda Levy have received support from the Histadrut and the Israel Journalists Association.

But they are making few inroads with the owners of Israel’s only English-language daily, the Canada-based Hollinger group. And it is still uncertain that the remaining Post staff will join a strike on their behalf.

The dissidents, led by Managing Editor David Landau, accused Levy of violating his promise not to interfere in editorial policy.

In a letter to the owners, they said they would leave the newspaper if Levy was not removed as president and publisher in 30 days.

Levy responded Tuesday by dismissing them immediately. They were given half an hour to clear their desks and were barred Wednesday from the newspaper’s premises.

The Israel Journalists Association instructed its members Wednesday not to fill vacancies on the Post’s staff.

Histadrut, Israel’s trade union federation, agreed with the association and promised to support the Post’s employees if they called a strike.

A majority reportedly urged an immediate strike during what was described as a “stormy meeting” at the Post on Wednesday afternoon. But others seemed willing to settle for a firm understanding that management would not interfere in editorial matters.

Some staff members reportedly suggested that vacancies should be filled internally or by qualified outsiders to whom the current staff agreed.

MANY FAMILIAR BYLINES MISSING

The outcome of the meeting was not immediately known, since reporters from other newspapers were not admitted to the Post building.

The newspaper appeared Wednesday morning, without many of the familiar bylines. More than the usual amount of space was devoted to foreign copy prepared by news agencies.

Also missing were the news analysis and in-depth reporting for which the Jerusalem Post has been held in high esteem at home and abroad, regardless of its relatively small circulation.

The journalists who have left the paper include most of the key editors, as well as several highly respected correspondents, such as Yehuda Litani, Menachem Shalev and Charles Hoffman.

But publisher Levy apparently is not impressed with the journalists responsible for the paper’s reputation.

“The real dispute,” he told Israel Radio on Wednesday, “is between me and a small group of trivial journalists who decided for many or any reasons not to let me run the paper as publisher and editor — I mean president — since the first day I came into this new position.”

The apparent Freudian slip may reflect Levy’s ambitions. Although the retired Israel Defense Force colonel admits he has no journalistic background, he has applied for membership in the Israel Editors Committee, an organization of top professionals.

Owner David Radler, who spoke to Israel Radio by telephone from Canada, maintained that the dissident staff members were unable to adjust to the change of the Post’s ownership from Histadrut’s financially ailing Koor Industries to the aggressive, profit-oriented Hollinger chain, which owns 200 newspapers and periodicals in Britain and North America.

“It is no longer a little clubhouse. It is a serious business, and some people just can’t adjust to that,” said Radler, who has owned the Post since last April.

He was quoted as telling Reuters, “All we want is fairness and balance. If they (the dismissed staff) are incapable of providing that balance, I’m glad they’ve gone.”

Most observers see ideology at the core of the dispute. The Post, always somewhat left of center, has been sharply critical of the Likud bloc and Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s handling of the 2-year-old Palestinian uprising.

The new publisher says he wants more balance, but appears to be determined to give the Post a pro-Likud slant.

Joanna Yehiel, who had been editor of the paper’s weekend magazine, said in that connection, “I don’t think the public wants to read what will virtually become a propaganda sheet.”