Al-Quds Newspaper: Memory and Memories

I am fortunate to have lived in that beautiful time, when newspapers were omnipresent, adding beauty and carrying messages to the readership every morning. I was also among the luckiest because, ever since I was a child, I became familiar with the smell of paper and ink. I was born into a reading family that read Al-Quds newspaper every day, and that childhood had an impact on who I became later on. I lived for years dreaming of becoming a writer for the newspaper, and I never thought that dream would come true. Rather, I thought it was like many dreams that are dashed halfway through. As I grew older, I learned that newspapers have a scent unlike any other book or paper. They are closer than anything else and have something that distinguishes them from everything else.

The Al-Quds newspaper vendor would roam the city streets and the neighborhood where I lived, the "madhouse neighborhood," which coincidentally was called "the mountain," on a bicycle, delivering the newspaper to readers who waited for it every morning. This was a custom that disappeared in the age of technology and the proliferation of satellite television, before the arrival of social media, which is expanding today while demand for printed newspapers declines. Online browsers have become a constant for generations, via smartphones and mobile devices.

Once upon a time, the newspaper vendor I remember so well, with his Palestinian keffiyeh on his head, would arrive at the family shop every morning. Everyone would take turns reading the pages with their different topics. Al-Quds newspaper would pass from hand to hand, each with his own interest in the issues covered. Some would race to solve the crossword puzzles, which had a daily column in each issue. My habit, however, was to start reading the newspaper from its last page, where the cartoons were drawn in color, and then turn the pages from the end to the beginning, unlike what the others did. This habit stuck with me without me knowing the reason behind it.

Times have changed. Technology has advanced rapidly, screens have begun to replace paper, and many newspapers have retreated in the face of the internet flood. However, Al-Quds newspaper, which has always carried a national identity and a sincere sense of belonging, has remained a shining name, keeping pace with this development with intelligence and responsibility. It launched its electronic platforms and communicated with new generations using their language and tools, while simultaneously preserving its print image, which continues to be printed, read, and anticipated every morning.

It is true that, in the last decade, the newspaper vendor has disappeared from the neighborhood, and so has his voice and presence, just as many other things have disappeared in the hustle and bustle of life and the development that has befallen the country and its people. However, Al-Quds newspaper, which bears the name of the city and its history, and whose launch had a legacy and impact, and throughout its years remained faithful to the spirit of the beginnings, despite the change of means and the succession of generations. It was never merely a newspaper circulated by people, but rather it was and still is a voice and an identity, and a mirror of a cause and a homeland.

Today, whenever I hold the Al-Quds newspaper, I close my eyes and go back there... to that beautiful time, the quiet neighborhood, my childhood home, my family, to the voice of my father reading aloud, to the newspaper vendor calling out in the neighborhood, and to my first dream that grew with me and found a place for itself between the lines of a newspaper that is still strongly present among us, preserving its name and its design, and keeping pace with the development of modernity across its various platforms.

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Technology has advanced rapidly, screens have begun to replace paper, and many newspapers have retreated in the face of the internet. However, Al-Quds newspaper, which has always carried a national identity and a sincere sense of belonging, has remained a shining name, keeping pace with this development with intelligence and responsibility.