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 following the Young Turk Revolution. Newspapers in the region were primarily written in Arabic, Hebrew, and Ottoman Turkish. Arabic-language newspapers voiced Arab aspirations, largely opposing Zionism, whilst the Hebrew newspapers largely supported Zionism. Al-Karmil was established in 1908 and Falastin in 1911, both published by Palestinian Christians, whilst Haaretz, established in 1918, is the longest-running newspaper established by Palestinian Jews.
However, the emerging press was soon suppressed after the outbreak of World War I in 1914. When Palestine became a British Mandate in 1920, its press became more diverse, as over 250 Arabic newspapers and 65 in other languages were circulating in Mandatory Palestine by the mid-1930s. The British began to introduce restrictive measures after the 1929 Palestine riots, and suspended many major publications during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt. 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.
The 1948 Palestine war forced Falastin and Al-Difa to move from Jaffa to East Jerusalem, which along with Al-Jihad, became Jordan's press for many years. Jordan issued a new press law in early 1967 that forced a merger of newspapers, leaving only East Jerusalem-based Al-Quds. Israel's occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip following the Six Day War in 1967 brought the Palestinian press under Israeli military censorship, which would continue until the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1993. The three main newspapers circulating in the Palestinian territories today include Al-Quds; and Ramallah-based Al-Hayat Al-Jadida and Al-Ayyam.
Palestinian journalists reporting from the occupied territories have witnessed restrictions and risks, especially during the First and Second Intifadas which started in 1987 and 2000 respectively, and the ongoing Gaza war. The year 2023 saw record numbers of Palestinian journalists arrested and killed by the Israeli military. The rise of the internet in the 1990s gave Palestinians a new platform to share their narrative, such as the creation of Palestine Chronicle and The Electronic Intifada English websites, and Quds News Network and Shehab News Agency. Since then print newspapers have been challenged by the rise of such digital and citizen journalism, which has been faced with a "systematic censorship" campaign by some social media sites, such as Facebook.
Print journalism Background The first printing house in Palestine was established in Safed in 1577 by Rabbi Avraham ben Yitzchak Ashkenazi and Eliezer ben Isaac Ashkenazi, who printed ten books between 1577 and 1587, the first books ever printed in the Near East. The same type was used by Josiah ben Joseph Pinto in Damascus in 1605.
The Ottoman Empire banned use of the printing press from its invention in the 15th century until the mid-1700s, and the banned of its public use until the mid-1800s, which was one of the main obstacles preventing the early onset of journalism in the region.
19th century In 1831, Yisrael Bak reestablished a printing house in Safed, moving it to Jerusalem in 1841 following an earthquake in Safed. A second printing house was opened in Jerusalem in 1862, and Jerusalem became the primary printing centre in the Palestine region for the rest of the 19th century.
The printing press also began to be used by Christian institutions to produce religious texts, first by Jerusalem's Franciscan Church in 1846, and followed afterwards by the Armenian and Greek Churches. 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. By the year 1908 Egypt boasted 627 publications with a circulation of around 100,000.
The first newspaper published in Palestine was HaLevanon, established in Jerusalem in early 1863 by , Michal HaCohen and Yoel Moshe Salomon. The paper originated from an effort by Jerusalem's Misnagdim to reduce their reliance on Yisrael Bak's Hasidic-aligned printing house, which resulted in Salomon and HaCohen studying printing at Königsberg, before conceiving HaLevanon upon their return. They subsequently established their own printing house at Nahalat Shiv'a and began its publication. The paper moved to Europe, having been shut down in Palestine by Ottoman authorities in December 1863 after being reported to them by Bak, who had started publishing rival paper Havatzelet in mid-1863. Havatzelet ceased printing after its fifth issue in 1864, at the same time as the closure of HaLevanon, and was renewed again in 1870, remaining in publication until 1911. Both HaLevanon and Havatzelet were published in Hebrew.
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. It closed shortly after and reopened in 1903. Arabic periodicals only reappeared in Palestine following the 1908 Young Turk Revolution, which lifted press censorship in the empire. About fifteen publications emerged in that year, and another twenty were published before the onset of World War I in 1914. Nearly another 180 were published during the British Mandate for Palestine (1920–1948). However, launching newspapers was easier than sustaining them, as most of these periodicals lasted for a short period of time, especially considering the competition with high quality periodicals from Beirut and Cairo, such as the Egyptian Al-Ahram (The Pyramids).: "In 1936 Zionists attempting to set up an Arabic newspaper to counter anti-Zionist propaganda, acknowledged that it was difficult to compete with the quality of imported Egyptian publications like al-Ahrām [The Pyramids] and al-Jihad [The Struggle]."
In 1897 the Printing Workers' Association was established, the first trade union in the region.
Early 20th century Three of Palestine's leading Arabic-language newspapers of the pre-World War I era were Al-Quds (Jerusalem) established by Jurji Habib Hanania in Jerusalem in September 1908; Al-Karmil (Carmel after Mount Carmel) in Haifa by Najib Nassar in December 1908; and Falastin (Palestine) by the cousins Issa El-Issa and Yousef El-Issa in Jaffa in January 1911. These three newspapers voiced Arab aspirations and were all published by Palestinian Christians, showing the early role they played in Arab nationalism. In particular, Al-Karmil and Falastin were opposed to Zionism. It was in this early period that the terms "Palestine" and "Palestinians" were being increasingly used by the press.
These early Arab Palestinian newspapers saw Ottoman Jews as loyal subjects to the empire, but condemned Zionism, and grew fearful of it due to the waves of European Jewish immigrants to Palestine, who built settlements relying on Jewish labor and excluded Arab ones. Thus, Arab editors began a public awareness campaign, warning that once the Zionist project was fulfilled, the Arab majority and their lands in Palestine would be lost. 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.: "In the spring of 1909 Al-Asma'i published an article by a young poet from a prominent family, Isaf an-Nashashibi, who admonished that Jews "should help in reviving this Arabic] language after its destruction." An-Nashashibi also urged that they "rid their hearts of those empty aspirations like the question of Zionism or governing Palestine," since there was no chance of achieving such hopes. "If the Jews want to live a good life with us," the young poet continued, "they should unite with us in respecting this beautiful language.... They should imitate our brothers the Christians, who are founding schools and teaching this beautiful language." The Arab editors preferred to raise the issue to the public's attention rather than the Ottoman authorities, so that the public can be active in preventing land sales to Jews, which caused Arab peasants' eviction, and their subsequent loss of work.
The readership of the newspapers in this early period was limited, but it had been expanding. 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. "Newspaper breaks" used to take place in some factories. There was also recorded instances of newspapers sending a copy of their newspaper to villages in the surrounding areas, namely Falastin. Articles from Falastin and Al-Karmil were often reprinted in other local papers and national ones in Beirut, Damascus, and Cairo.
Mandate period (1917–1948)
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. During the mandate period, the press became more diverse than in the Ottoman period, and reflected different political factions and national consciousness. In 1918, the Haaretz Hebrew-language newspaper, sponsored by the British military government in Palestine, was established in Jerusalem. In 1919, it was taken over by a group of socialist-oriented Zionists, mainly from Russia, including the philanthropist Isaac Leib Goldberg; it was initially called Hadashot Ha'aretz ("News of the Land"). The literary section of the paper attracted leading Hebrew writers of the time.
According to one survey in the mid-1930s, over 250 Arabic newspapers and 65 in other languages were circulating in Mandatory Palestine. The British had adopted the Ottoman Press Law that had mandated for newspapers the licensing of their franchises and the submission of translations of their work to authorities; however, the British did not interfere in the press until the 1929 Palestine riots between Arabs and Jews. The events of that year led to a radicalization of Arab newspapers, and the British changed their initially tolerant position to a more restrictive approach.
Most of these publications appeared weekly and the number of copies distributed increased gradually. While most newspapers distributed hundreds of copies each during the Ottoman period, this figure increased to 1,000–1,500 during the Mandate period in the 1920s. Falastin, which was the most popular Palestinian newspaper, sold towards the end of the 1920s around 3,000 copies per issue. 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. Around six newspapers were established in Jaffa, in addition to Falastin; twelve in Haifa; and some others in Bethlehem, Gaza and Tulkarem.
In the 1920s, the Hebrew-language Palestinian press, including Haaretz, increasingly moved from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, whilst the Arabic-language press remained in Jerusalem.