''Al-Ittihad'' () is an

Arabic language Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

daily newspaper in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. Based in

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

, it was established in 1944 and is owned by the communist Maki party. It is the oldest Arabic media outlet in Israel and considered the most important. The newspaper is currently edited by Aida Touma-Suleiman.

History

The paper was established in 1944 by Emile Toma, Fu'ad Nassar and Emile Habibi."The rocket hit the struggle for peace"
'Haaretz'', 8 August 2006. Its first edition was published on 14 May that year. Habibi edited the paper until 1989. The newspaper functioned as an organ for the National Liberation League in Palestine. From September 1945 onwards it was published in the name of the Arab Workers' Congress. The newspaper was shut down by the British authorities in February 1948, reappearing on 18 October. In July members of the NLL in Haifa contacted the

Mapam File:Pre-State_Zionist_Workers'_Parties_chart.png, chart of zionist workers parties, 360px, right rect 167 83 445 250 Hapoel Hatzair rect 450 88 717 265 The non-partisans (pre-state Zionist political movement), Non Partisans rect 721 86 995 243 ...

party, asking them to pressure Israeli authorities to give a license to resume publishing the newspaper. ''Al-Ittihad'' was the only pre-state Arabic-language paper to continue publication after independence. In 1948 it moved into a new building on Al-Hariri Road. In the years after independence when Israeli Arabs were subject to military government, the paper was banned in some areas. It was later banned in the West Bank. In 1953 ''Al-Ittihad'' and its Hebrew sister newspaper, '' Kol HaAm'', published a controversial article on the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

, which resulted in the

Minister of Internal Affairs An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

, Israel Rokach, ordering both papers to close for 15 days. The papers filed a petition to the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

, which ruled that the suspension had been wrongly issued and should be set aside.Schmidt, Y (2008
''Foundations of Civil and Political Rights in Israel and the Occupied Territories''
GRIN Verlag, p. 126. The ruling utilised the

Declaration of Independence A declaration of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another state or failed state, or are breaka ...

in making its judgment on the issue of free speech, the first time the declaration had been used as an instrument for interpretation. While other communist newspapers lost much of their readership after the 1956 war, ''Al-Ittihad'' was able to recover, regaining its pre-war readership level by 1961. In 1961, the readership of its Friday edition was twice as large as the readership of ''Kol HaAm'', in spite of the fact that Arabs made up only 11.3% of the country's population, and literacy levels were generally lower in the Arab community. The paper's readership continued to grow gradually for some time. Initially a weekly paper, it was later published biweekly, finally becoming a daily newspaper in 1983. In 1988 the government again ordered it closed for a week, six days before Land Day. Due to financial problems and the loss of senior reporters, the newspaper had moved to

Hadash Hadash is a left-wing to far-left political coalition in Israel formed by the Israeli Communist Party and other leftist groups. History The party was formed on 15 March 1977 when the Rakah and Non-Partisans parliamentary group changed its ...

party headquarters in

Nazareth Nazareth is the largest Cities in Israel, city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. In its population was . Known as "the Arab capital of Israel", Nazareth serves as a cultural, political, religious, economic and ...

, and then returned to Haifa to a building on HaMaronitim Road. In 2006 staff were preparing to return to its Al-Hariri Road location, but the building was hit by a rocket during the

2006 Lebanon War The 2006 Lebanon War was a 34-day armed conflict in Lebanon, fought between Hezbollah and Israel. The war started on 12 July 2006, and continued until a United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect in the morning on 14 August 2006, thoug ...

and badly damaged.Haifa: Rocket hits anti-war newspaper
''Yedioth Ahronoth'', 7 August 2006.

Staff

Editors

* Ahmad Sa'd * Aida Touma-Suleiman

Writers

Mahmoud Darwish Mahmoud Darwish (; 13 March 1941 – 9 August 2008) was a Palestinians, Palestinian poet and author who was regarded as Palestine's national poet. In 1988 Darwish wrote the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, which was the formal declarat ...

* Salim Joubran * Samih al-Qasim * Tawfik Toubi * Tawfiq Ziad * Jabra Nicola

References

External links

''Al-Ittihad''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ittihad (Israeli Newspaper) 1944 establishments in Mandatory Palestine Newspapers established in 1944 Arab Israeli culture in Haifa Arabic communist newspapers Arabic-language newspapers published in Israel Communist newspapers published in Israel Mass media in Haifa Companies based in Haifa Daily newspapers published in Israel