القدس: الذكرى المئوية الأولى لصحافة وصحيفة رائدة
النص الكامل: 

This issue of the JQ celebrates the 100th anniversary of the founding of Al-Quds newspaper. Established in Jerusalem in 1908 by Jurji Habib Hanania (1864-1920), al-Quds became the first public daily newspaper in the country. It was soon followed by Falasteen in Jaffa (launched in 1911 by Issa al-Issa), and one year later in 1909 by al-Karmel in Haifa (launched as an anti-Zionist organ by the maverick Najib Nassar). On the other side of the ideological divide Nissim and Shimon Moyal published Sawt al-Uthmaniyya (Jaffa, 1913), as a propagator of Zionism in Arabic, and it was in response to this paper that Nassar turned his paper in the anti-Zionist direction. The significance of Jurgi Hanania’s paper, however, aside from being the first newspaper, was its timing. It both celebrated and tested the new freedom of This issue of the JQ celebrates the 100th anniversary of the founding of Al-Quds newspaper. Established in Jerusalem in 1908 by Jurji Habib Hanania (1864-1920), al-Quds became the first public daily newspaper in the country. It was soon followed by Falasteen in Jaffa (launched in 1911 by Issa al-Issa), and one year later in 1909 by al-Karmel in Haifa (launched as an anti-Zionist organ by the maverick Najib Nassar). On the other side of the ideological divide Nissim and Shimon Moyal published Sawt al-Uthmaniyya (Jaffa, 1913), as a propagator of Zionism in Arabic, and it was in response to this paper that Nassar turned his paper in the anti-Zionist direction.

The significance of Jurgi Hanania’s paper, however, aside from being the first newspaper, was its timing. It both celebrated and tested the new freedom of ublication proclaimed by the Ottoman Constitutional Revolution of 1908, with its promises for freedom of the press and assembly, including the rights of citizens and the formation of political parties. Hanania established a press that became a beacon for an Arabic literary renaissance in that period.

Paradoxically, the coming of WWI and the military regime of Ahmad Jamal Pasha ushered a return to press censorship, and ultimately the closure of the three pioneering papers–Falastin, al-Karmil, and (not least) al-Quds. Jurgi Habib Hanania went into exile in Egypt and was never able to resume publication. But his work laid the foundations for an independent and combative press that had to face the tribulations of the Mandate period. JQ was fortunate enough to have Hanania’s granddaughter contribute this personal history of the man, his press, and his newspaper using unique family papers that have hitherto been unknown.