Al-Difa'

The paper was first published in Jaffa on 20 April 1934.{{cite web|title=al-Difāʻ = Ad-difaa|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/sn2002058154/ |publisher=Library of Congress|access-date=22 October 2023}}{{cite journal|author=Adnan A. Musallam|title=Palestinian Arab Press Developments Under British Rule with A Case Study of Bethlehem's Sawt al-Sha'b|journal=Bethlehem University Journal|volume=5|year=1986|page=77

|jstor=26444513}} Its founders, Ibrahim Al Shanti, Sami Al Siraj, and Khayr Al Din Al Zirikli, were three journalists who left the newspaper Al Jamia Al Islamiyya.{{cite thesis|author=Walaa AlGhussein|title=Mandated to Report: The Role of the Nationalist Press in Reporting Zionist Land Expropriation and Labor Conquest in Palestine During the 1930s|location=City University of New York|url=https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3613/|page=26|degree=MA|year=2020}} Ibrahim Al Shanti was the owner and editor of Al-Difa'.{{cite web|url=https://brill.com/fileasset/downloads_products/31662_Titlelist.pdf|title=Title list|page=1|access-date=22 October 2023|website=brill.com}}{{cite journal|author1=Sarah Ozacky-Lazar|author2=Mustafa Kabaha|title=The Haganah by Arab and Palestinian Historiography and Media|journal=Israel Studies|volume=7|issue=3|year=2002|doi=10.1353/is.2003.0008

|page=58|jstor=30245595}} Shawkat Hammad took over the role of editor in 1936.{{cite journal|date=23 July 1936|title=Notice of change in permit granted for publication of a newspaper|journal=The Palestine Gazette|volume= 614|page=732}}{{cite journal|date=21 September 1939|title=Notice of grant of a permit to publish a newspaper|journal=The Palestine Gazette|volume=936|page=871}}

Al-Difa' was published five days per week during its initial period and later became a daily newspaper. The paper had rural and Muslim readers in Mandatory Palestine. It presented its readers several prizes such as cars and motorcycles.{{cite web|url=https://palarchive.org/index.php/Detail/objects/112988/lang/en_US|title=Al-Difaa' newspaper prizes to its readers|website=Palestinian Museum Digital Archive|access-date=22 October 2023}} The paper was actively interested in the development of Jaffa and submitted a five-year development plan in 1934 to the municipality to improve the city's living, health-care and educational conditions.{{cite journal

|author=Tamir Goren|title=The development gap between the cities of Jaffa and Tel Aviv and its effect on the weakening of Jaffa in the time of the Mandate|journal=Middle Eastern Studies|volume=56|issue=6|year=2020|doi=10.1080/00263206.2020.1759555

|page=905|s2cid=219421988}} Al-Difa extensively covered news on the civil war in Spain between 1936 and 1939.{{cite book|author=Mustafa Kabha|editor=Israel Gershoni|year=2014|title=Arab Responses to Fascism and Nazism: Attraction and Repulsion|publisher=University of Texas Press|location=Austin, TX|chapter=The Spanish Civil War as Reflected in Contemporary Palestinian Press|chapter-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7560/757455.10|pages=130,136|isbn=9780292757462|doi=10.7560/757455-008|jstor=10.7560/757455

|s2cid=240079125}} It did not openly support the rival groups of the war, but published the views of various countries about these groups. However, the paper presented Francisco Franco in a positive manner and employed the term communists to refer to government forces and the term nationalists to describe rebel forces.

Al-Difa' was banned by the British authorities in 1937 for nearly two months due the publication of allegedly false reports which might "endanger public peace."{{cite web|title=Mandate for Palestine – Report of the Mandatory to the LoN|access-date=7 January 2024

|url=https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-208273/|publisher=United Nations|quote=The report is dated 1937}}

The last issue of Al-Difa' in Jaffa appeared on 29 December 1948.{{cite web|url=https://www.nli.org.il/en/newspapers/difaa?|title=Al Difa|publisher=National Library of Israel|access-date=22 October 2023}} Then it was published in East Jerusalem which was under the rule of the Jordanian Hashemites. The paper moved to Amman, Jordan, in 1967 when East Jerusalem was occupied by Israel. It was banned by the Jordanian government on 26 May 1971 due to the publication of an article which allegedly offended the Jordanian authorities.{{cite web|title=Ibrahim Alshanti|website=All 4 Palestine|url=http://www.all4palestine.com/ModelDetails.aspx?gid=16&mid=2399&lang=en|access-date=22 October 2023}} The paper produced 3,874 issues during its run. Its issues published between 1934 and 1951 were archived in Al Aqsa Mosque library in Jerusalem.{{cite web|author1=Krystyna Matusiak|author2=Qasem Abu Harb|title=Digitizing the Historical Periodical Collection at the Al-Aqsa Mosque Library in East Jerusalem|format=Conference Paper|url=http://eprints.rclis.org/20444/|website=rclis.org|access-date=18 February 2024|date=24 August 2009}}

Al-Difa' adopted a pan-Arab and pan-Islam political stance. The paper was one of the mouthpieces of the Istiqlal Party between its start in 1934 and 1939.{{cite journal|author=Adnan Abu Ghazaleh|title=Arab Cultural Nationalism in Palestine During The British Mandate|journal=Journal of Palestine Studies|volume=1|issue=3

|year=1972|doi=10.2307/2535866|page=56|jstor=2535866}} The paper's editors participated in the Arab Journalists’ Congress held in Ramla on 27 May 1936. It was organized to make it possible for the newspapers to reinforce national solidarity and to provide correct information to their readers during the emerging Arab riot. Although Al-Difa was not affiliated with any party during the World War II period, it supported Amin al-Husseini and the Palestinians' struggle against the British rule opposing the Zionism. It was also an advocate of Nazi policies and was financed by the Arab Bank in the 1940s. However, when the racist characteristic of the Nazi regime began to be much more evident, its support for the Nazi policies ended. The paper encouraged the modernization of daily life among the Palestinian middle and upper classes.{{cite journal|author=Enaya Othman|title=Deconstructing the Dogma of Domesticity: Quaker education and nationalism in British Mandate Palestine|journal=Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History|doi=10.1353/cch.2018.0000|volume=19|issue=1|date=Spring 2018

|page=5}}

Major contributors of Al-Difa' when it was based in Jaffa included Mahmoud Abu Al Zalaf, Mahmoud Yaish, and Ahmad Khalil Al Aqad, and Akram Zuayter.

The circulation data given in the report by the Royal Peel Commission which had been formed to examine the Arab riots in the region in 1936 indicate that shortly after its start Al-Difa' reached the circulation level of the influential Falastin newspaper. Their circulation was reported to be between 4,000 and 6,000 copies in the report.{{cite journal|author=Mustafa Kabha|title=The Palestinian press and the general strike, April–October 1936: Filastin as a case study|journal=Middle Eastern Studies

|volume=39|issue=3|year=2003|doi=10.1080/00263200412331301727|pages=170,176|s2cid=145466351}} It sold 13,000 copies in 1946, whereas Falastin sold 9,000 copies. One of the reasons for the higher circulation of the paper than Falastin was that the readers considered it as a "Muslim publication".

On the other hand, both papers were read aloud publicly in various cities and settlements of the Mandatory Palestine showing that they had readers everywhere in the region.{{cite journal|author=Tamir Sorek|title=Calendars, Martyrs, and Palestinian Particularism under British Rule|journal=Journal of Palestine Studies|volume=43|issue=1|year=2013|doi=10.1525/jps.2013.43.1.6|page=17}} In the mid-1940s Al-Difa' became the most influential Palestinian newspaper.{{cite journal|author=Walid Khalidi|title=Why Did the Palestinians Leave, Revisited|journal=Journal of Palestine Studies|volume=34|issue=2|date=Winter 2005|doi=10.1525/jps.2005.34.2.042|page=44

|s2cid=153322044|author-link=Walid Khalidi}}

{{Reflist}}

{{History of Palestinian journalism}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Difa}}

Category:1934 establishments in Mandatory Palestine

Category:1971 disestablishments in Jordan

Category:Anti-Zionism in Mandatory Palestine

Category:Banned newspapers

Category:Defunct Arabic-language newspapers

Category:Defunct newspapers published in Jordan

Category:Mass media in Amman

Category:History of Jaffa

Category:Defunct newspapers published in Jerusalem

Category:Newspapers published in Mandatory Palestine

Category:Newspapers established in 1934

Category:Publications disestablished in 1971