Al-Quds newspaper...a professional newspaper like no other

Al-Quds newspaper had an objective impact on news content and on everyone who worked as an editor, writer, or reporter for the newspaper. Objectivity, in its philosophical sense, reflects the journalistic conscience on pages readers read daily.

In journalistic tradition, the journalistic conscience sits on the seesaw of justice, distinguishing one writer from another based on their professional experience. This includes not injecting subjectivity into the content, but rather emphasizing accuracy and credibility, and avoiding the use of defamatory and libelous expressions for professional and humanitarian reasons.

This is what Al-Quds newspaper has been and continues to be since its founding. Its editorial board was led by the late Mahmoud Abu Al-Zuluf, and it gained the respect of the public. It extended beyond that broad framework to include institutions, organizations, and all Palestinian nationalists who were awaiting the newspaper's publication. This was in circumstances that were different from those we are experiencing today, with its development encompassing the most modern media outlets, using contemporary technologies that our previous generation had not witnessed at the beginning of the profession.

My relationship with Al-Quds newspaper was exceptional, due to the editorial staff's openness to short stories from Palestinian camps and remote villages, far from the cities and their personalities, whose statements occupied large spaces on the newspaper's pages, and the mutual respect among colleagues in the profession.

Perhaps I can do justice to this newspaper, by giving it the professional praise it deserves, for its distinction from other Palestinian newspapers, by returning to the pages of a sacred memory from the history of the Palestinian people, to recount an honorable event that was completed by professional and national affiliation, even if there is a moral separation between professionalism and nationalism in the media profession.

I heard the landline ring in my office at the Bethlehem Press Bureau. I picked up the receiver and the caller introduced himself as Naji al-Ali from London. That was in 1985—two years before the first intifada—and he told me he'd moved to work at the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas there.

Naji asked me to help publish his cartoons in a local Palestinian newspaper in occupied Jerusalem.

I welcomed the idea and promised to discuss the matter with the late editor-in-chief of Al-Quds newspaper, Mahmoud Abu Al-Zuluf. I met him the next day in his office. Abu Al-Zuluf welcomed the idea, and signs of pleasure were evident on his face at Naji's call. He also promised to publish his drawings at the top of the last page, but he asked me to inquire from Naji about the amount of compensation appropriate for his publications.

I replied to Abu Al-Zulf: I will ask Naji for clarification and I will reply to you by phone.

The next day, I picked up the phone and dialed Naji's phone number. When he answered, I told him what had happened and asked him what the reward would be for publishing his cartoons in Al-Quds newspaper.

Naji did not hesitate to respond, but quickly told me that he did not want a reward, but only hoped that his drawings would be published in a newspaper in occupied Palestine.

The next day, I left Bethlehem for Jerusalem to hand-distribute the newsletter. I met with the late Professor Abu al-Zuluf and told him that Naji al-Ali had no intention of receiving a reward for his cartoons. However, Abu al-Zuluf insisted that he would send a special reward and asked me to tell Naji al-Ali to begin sending his cartoons immediately.

But the late Aba Al-Zulf added a question: How could Naji send his drawings? I told him that I had a fax machine that would allow me to receive the drawings and any other journalistic texts.

At that time, there were no fax machines in Palestinian newspapers, as this technology was new.

I told Abu Al-Zuluf that I had a fax machine in my office, and that I could receive these drawings daily and deliver them to the editorial department at Al-Quds newspaper, as the newspaper did not have a fax machine.

Abu Al-Zulf agreed, and then Naji began sending his drawings to the Bethlehem office every afternoon, so that I could skip the last minute of receiving press materials and send them before publication.

Naji continued this for months, and then suddenly, the calls from London stopped. The next day, unlike his usual response, I heard nothing from him. I immediately inquired about the matter and learned from the media, which rushed to report that he had been shot and assassinated. He remained in intensive care until his martyrdom on August 29, 1987.

The news hit me like a thunderbolt. At that moment, I was only aware of the caricatures Naji published, including in Al-Quds newspaper, which expressed the reality of the nation and the suffering of the Palestinian people in their homeland and in the diaspora. The shadow of sadness has haunted me ever since, because assassination is an unforgivable crime.

May God have mercy on our late teacher Abu Marwan and our friend, the martyred cartoonist Naji Al-Ali.

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Perhaps I can do justice to this newspaper, by giving it the professional praise it deserves, for its distinction from other Palestinian newspapers, by returning to the pages of a sacred memory from the history of the Palestinian people, to recount an honorable event complete with professional and national affiliation.