History of Palestinian journalism

This page is subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict.The history of Palestinian journalism dates back to the 19th century, and more newspapers in Palestine began to appear after the lifting of press censorship in the Ottoman Empire in 1908.

[3] Following the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the British authorities closed almost all the newspapers, with the exception of Falastin and Al-Difa', whose rivalry marked the mandate period.

[14] Since then print newspapers have been challenged by the rise of such digital and citizen journalism,[15][16] which has been faced with a "systematic censorship" campaign by some social media sites, such as Facebook.

[21] The first daily privately-published Arabic-language newspapers in the Ottoman Empire's Arab provinces, which enjoyed varying degrees of autonomy, appeared in Beirut in 1873 and in Cairo in 1875.

[22] The first newspaper published in Palestine was HaLevanon, established in Jerusalem in early 1863 by Yehiel Bril [he], Michal HaCohen and Yoel Moshe Salomon.

[27] The first Arabic-language newspaper in Palestine was a gazette called Al-Quds Al-Sharif established in 1876, written in Arabic and Ottoman Turkish and edited by Sheikh Ali Rimawi and ‘Abd al-Salam Kamal respectively.

[32] A common theme in the press of this early period is a criticism directed towards the European Jewish immigrants who failed to integrate, or bother learning Arabic.

Literacy rates were relatively low; however, social centers where created, such as libraries, the town cafe and the village guesthouse, where men would read aloud articles from newspapers and engage in political discussions.

[34] The Palestinian press was suppressed due to the outbreak of World War I in 1914, and only two main newspapers from the Ottoman period were reopened during the British Mandate, Al-Karmil and Falastin.

[37] In 1919, it was taken over by a group of socialist-oriented Zionists, mainly from Russia, including the philanthropist Isaac Leib Goldberg;[38][39][40] it was initially called Hadashot Ha'aretz ("News of the Land").

[3] In Jerusalem, twenty newspapers were established, mainly Mir'at al-Sharq (Mirror of the East) by Boulos Shehadeh, a Palestinian Christian, in September 1919; and Al-Jami'a Al-'Arabiya (The Arab Union), which was the voice of Palestine's Supreme Muslim Council, by Munif Husseini in December 1927.

[45][46][47] And the establishment of Al-Difa in April 1934 was considered an important event in the history of Palestinian journalism during the mandate period, as it managed to attract professional journalists from several Arab countries.

[48] While Falastin aimed to show that it served the whole nation by highlighting how uneducated people enjoyed reading their paper, in an implied criticism towards Al-Difa which had come to rely on intellectuals with a complex writing style.

[49] In the 1930s, two outspoken newspapers were established in Jaffa: Al-Jami'a Al-Islamiya (The Islamic Union) in 1932; and Al-Difa' (The Defense) in 1934, which was associated with Hizb Al-Istiqlal (The Independence Party).

After the outbreak of World War II in 1939, emergency laws were enacted and the British closed almost all the newspapers, except Falastin and Al-Difa, due to the publishing of censored news and the adoption of more moderate positions.

Ad-Dustour and Al-Difa' newspapers were both briefly suspended during Black September in 1970 after having published a Palestine Liberation Organization statement that cast blame on Jordan's government for the conflict.

As a result of the events of Black September and low wages paid to journalists, many professionals of Palestinian origin moved to Arab Gulf states.

[9][57] Between 1967 and 1987, 22 newspapers and 20 magazines were published in the territories, which gave priority to issues resulting from the Israeli occupation over cultural, social, and artistic topics.

[60] While Al-Quds is privately-owned, it is still associated with the Palestinian Authority (PA), and both Al-Ayyam and Al-Hayat Al-Jadida are fully affiliated with the PA.[60][10][61] In the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by Hamas, there are two newspapers published there, Felesteen (Palestine) established in 2006 and Al-Resalah (The Letter).

Two newspapers, Issa El-Issa's Jaffa publication, Falastin, and Al-Karmil, published in Haifa by Najib Nassar, were bastions of local patriotism, and critics of the Zionist-British entente and the danger that it posed to the Arab majority in Palestine.

[15] Human Rights Watch has documented a "systematic censorship" campaign by social media companies like Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook and Instagram, which has targeted accounts of Palestinian activists, including journalists, through bans and limiting their content's reach.

[17][65] The ongoing Israel-Hamas war, which started on 7 October 2023, saw a steep increase in the social media following of Palestinian journalists based in the Gaza Strip, including Motaz Azaiza and Plestia Alaqad, whose accounts, particularly on Instagram and TikTok, have swelled to millions of followers due to their documentation of the war as very few foreign journalists were allowed into the strip.

[67] The British authorities established the region's first radio station named Palestine Broadcasting Service (PBS) in 1936 to compete with the politicized print journalism.

[70] Hamas' victory in the 2006 Palestinian legislative election led to the establishment of Al Aqsa TV and its radio station Sawt Al-Aqsa.

[68] The period of the Second Intifada between 2000 and 2005 put Palestinian journalists and camera operators at heightened risks, including military closures, confiscation of equipment, prevention from reporting on certain incidents and locations, curfews, and arrests.

[71] The killing of Palestinian-American journalist and Al Jazeera reporter by the Israeli military, Shireen Abu Akleh, in 2022 gained widespread coverage globally; she is widely considered an icon of Palestinian journalism.