Al-Karmil (newspaper)
Encyclopedia
Al-Karmil was a weekly Arabic language
newspaper founded toward the end of Ottoman imperial rule
in Palestine
. Named for Mount Carmel
in the Haifa district
, the first issue was published in December 1908, with the stated purpose of "opposing Zionist
colonization".
The owner, editor and key writer for the newspaper was Najib Nassar
, a Palestinian Christian
and staunch anti-Zionist
, whose editorials warning of the dangers posed by Zionism to the Palestinian people
were often reprinted in other Syrian
newspapers. Beginning in the 1920s, Najib's wife, Sadhij Nassar (c.1900 - c.1970), a granddaughter of the founder of the Bahá'í Faith
, was also a key editor, administrator and journalist for the newspaper. Besides writing, she also translated articles from the foreign press, and was editor from 1941 to 1944, when the British Mandate authorities refused to grant her a permit.
After the demise of the Ottoman empire in the wake of World War I, Al-Karmil continued to be published during British Mandatory rule in Palestine well into the 1940s.
, Rashid Khalidi
characterizes them as "instrumental in shaping early Palestinian national consciousness
and in stirring opposition to Zionism." Khalidi contends that almost immediately after the publication of its first issue in December 1908, al-Karmil "became the primary vehicle of an extensive campaign against Zionist settlement in Palestine
."
Najib Nassar, owner, editor and journalist for the paper, not only printed news items and editorials concerning Zionism and its aims, but also re-published articles on Zionism from other Arabic newspapers based in Cairo
, Beirut
and Damascus
, such as al-Muqattam, al-Ahram
, al-Mufid, al-Ittihad al-'Uthmani, snf al-Muqtabas, as well as from Istanbul
-based al-Hadara and Jaffa
-based Filastin. Further, Nassar devoted detailed coverage to the activities and aims of Zionist organizations in Palestine and abroad. Between March and June 1911, al-Karmil published a sixteen-part series on "Zionism: Its history, objective, and importance" that was later released as a 65-page booklet. The material included condensed translations on Zionism from the Encyclopedia Judaica, and the booklet concluded by describing the efforts of Theodor Herzl
on behalf of Zionism, calling for men like Herzl, "...who will forget their private interests in favor of the public good," to step forth from among the Palestinian population to oppose Zionism. Nassar's purpose was to incite public opinion against Zionism, whose aims and activities he viewed as a threat to the Arab
character of Palestine, but he also focused on alerting the public to instances in which the ruling Ottoman and later British authorities were colluding with Zionists to facilitate Jewish land purchases.
At the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 Najib Nassar spoke out against Turkish entry into the conflict and was put on a wanted list. Accused of spying for the British against Ottoman Turkey and its German allies, he fled from his home in Haifa to Nazareth, and from there, wandered over the Galilee and the eastern bank of the River Jordan. He went on the run for three years, living with Bedouin
goat herders in the hills of what is now the Israeli Galilee, West Bank and northern Jordan, narrowly escaping capture.
and Christian
, you are responsible for the integrity of the nation [watan
] and keeping Palestine Arab as it was until now. Every woman will spread the spirit of cooperation among the sons of the Arabs in the souls of her children."In 1930 Sadhij Nassar was a founding member and secretary of the Arab Women's Union in Haifa, which was one of the more militant branches of the women's movement during the British Mandate
period.
Committee of Union and Progress
(CUP), but by 1911, like most other pan-Arabist
thinkers, it switched to opposing the CUP because of its perceived bias in favor of Zionism. Among the contributing writers to al-Karmil were many who had participated in the Arab revolt
of 1916, such as Druze
intellectual Ali Nasir al-Din and educator and journalist Hamdi al-Husayni.
under the Defense Emergency Regulations
in a women's prison in Bethlehem
until February 1940, when she was detained because "she was actively engaged in subversive propaganda." After her release, she returned to editing al-Karmil, serving as the editor between 1941 and 1944, when the newspaper was operating without a permit after the British authorities had refused to issue one.She continued her activities in the women's movement until 1948, when she became a refugee
and wrote for various publications in London and in Damascus
, where she tried to open a branch of the Arab Women's Union. She is believed to have died in Damascus during the 1970s.
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
newspaper founded toward the end of Ottoman imperial rule
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
in Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
. Named for Mount Carmel
Mount Carmel
Mount Carmel ; , Kármēlos; , Kurmul or جبل مار إلياس Jabal Mar Elyas 'Mount Saint Elias') is a coastal mountain range in northern Israel stretching from the Mediterranean Sea towards the southeast. Archaeologists have discovered ancient wine and oil presses at various locations on Mt. Carmel...
in the Haifa district
District of Haifa
The District of Haifa was an administrative district of the British Mandate of Palestine that covered the northern Mediterranean coast of regional Palestine, southwestern Galilee, and the Wadi Ara region. It was disintegrated after the British withdrawal from the area. Prior to and during the 1948...
, the first issue was published in December 1908, with the stated purpose of "opposing Zionist
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
colonization".
The owner, editor and key writer for the newspaper was Najib Nassar
Najib Nassar
Najib Nassar was a Palestinian journalist.Nassar was educated in Lebanon. His family comes, originally, from a mountain village called Ein Einub . The family left the village in the middle of the nineteenth century. He worked as a pharmacist for the Scottish Hospital in Tiberias...
, a Palestinian Christian
Palestinian Christian
Palestinian Christians are Arabic-speaking Christians descended from the people of the geographical area of Palestine. Within Palestine, there are churches and believers from many Christian denominations, including Oriental Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholic , Protestant, and others...
and staunch anti-Zionist
Anti-Zionism
Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionistic views or opposition to the state of Israel. The term is used to describe various religious, moral and political points of view in opposition to these, but their diversity of motivation and expression is sufficiently different that "anti-Zionism" cannot be...
, whose editorials warning of the dangers posed by Zionism to the Palestinian people
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
were often reprinted in other Syrian
Greater Syria
Greater Syria , also known simply as Syria, is a term that denotes a region in the Near East bordering the Eastern Mediterranean Sea or the Levant....
newspapers. Beginning in the 1920s, Najib's wife, Sadhij Nassar (c.1900 - c.1970), a granddaughter of the founder of the Bahá'í Faith
Bahá'í Faith
The Bahá'í Faith is a monotheistic religion founded by Bahá'u'lláh in 19th-century Persia, emphasizing the spiritual unity of all humankind. There are an estimated five to six million Bahá'ís around the world in more than 200 countries and territories....
, was also a key editor, administrator and journalist for the newspaper. Besides writing, she also translated articles from the foreign press, and was editor from 1941 to 1944, when the British Mandate authorities refused to grant her a permit.
After the demise of the Ottoman empire in the wake of World War I, Al-Karmil continued to be published during British Mandatory rule in Palestine well into the 1940s.
Anti-Zionism
Writing of Al-Karmil and another early Palestinian newspaper, FilastinFilastin (newspaper)
Filastin was a twice-weekly newspaper published from 1911-1948 in Palestine. Published from Jaffa, the principal publishers were Isa al-Isa and his cousin Yusef al-Isa. Both al-Isas were Greek Orthodox, opponents of British administration, and supporters of pan-Arab unity...
, Rashid Khalidi
Rashid Khalidi
Rashid Ismail Khalidi , born 1948, a Palestinian-American historian of the Middle East, is the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, and director of the Middle East Institute of Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs.-Family, education and...
characterizes them as "instrumental in shaping early Palestinian national consciousness
Palestinian nationalism
Palestinian nationalism is the national movement of the Palestinian people. It has roots in Pan-Arabism and other movements rejecting colonialism and calling for national independence. More recently, Palestinian Nationalism is expressed through the Israeli–Palestinian conflict...
and in stirring opposition to Zionism." Khalidi contends that almost immediately after the publication of its first issue in December 1908, al-Karmil "became the primary vehicle of an extensive campaign against Zionist settlement in Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
."
Najib Nassar, owner, editor and journalist for the paper, not only printed news items and editorials concerning Zionism and its aims, but also re-published articles on Zionism from other Arabic newspapers based in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
and Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
, such as al-Muqattam, al-Ahram
Al-Ahram
Al-Ahram , founded in 1875, is the most widely circulating Egyptian daily newspaper, and the second oldest after al-Waqa'i`al-Masriya . It is majority owned by the Egyptian government....
, al-Mufid, al-Ittihad al-'Uthmani, snf al-Muqtabas, as well as from Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
-based al-Hadara and Jaffa
Jaffa
Jaffa is an ancient port city believed to be one of the oldest in the world. Jaffa was incorporated with Tel Aviv creating the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. Jaffa is famous for its association with the biblical story of the prophet Jonah.-Etymology:...
-based Filastin. Further, Nassar devoted detailed coverage to the activities and aims of Zionist organizations in Palestine and abroad. Between March and June 1911, al-Karmil published a sixteen-part series on "Zionism: Its history, objective, and importance" that was later released as a 65-page booklet. The material included condensed translations on Zionism from the Encyclopedia Judaica, and the booklet concluded by describing the efforts of Theodor Herzl
Theodor Herzl
Theodor Herzl , born Benjamin Ze’ev Herzl was an Ashkenazi Jew Austro-Hungarian journalist and the father of modern political Zionism and in effect the State of Israel.-Early life:...
on behalf of Zionism, calling for men like Herzl, "...who will forget their private interests in favor of the public good," to step forth from among the Palestinian population to oppose Zionism. Nassar's purpose was to incite public opinion against Zionism, whose aims and activities he viewed as a threat to the Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
character of Palestine, but he also focused on alerting the public to instances in which the ruling Ottoman and later British authorities were colluding with Zionists to facilitate Jewish land purchases.
At the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 Najib Nassar spoke out against Turkish entry into the conflict and was put on a wanted list. Accused of spying for the British against Ottoman Turkey and its German allies, he fled from his home in Haifa to Nazareth, and from there, wandered over the Galilee and the eastern bank of the River Jordan. He went on the run for three years, living with Bedouin
Bedouin
The Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...
goat herders in the hills of what is now the Israeli Galilee, West Bank and northern Jordan, narrowly escaping capture.
Women's rights
In 1926, al-Karmil began publishing a "women's page", (Safhat al-nisa), that was edited by Sadhij Nassar, Najib Nassar's wife, who also served as an editor and director of administration for the newspaper as a whole. Her journalistic contributions between 1926 and 1933 have been characterized as a kind of "one-woman press", wherein she commented on a wide range topics, including women's activities locally, regionally, and internationally. Encouraging women to raise their male and female children equally and to take up work to facilitate their economic independence, Sadhij Nassar also urged women to get involved in politics, while avoiding factionalism in favor of unity. For example, in the late 1920s, Nassar wrote, "You are responsible. Yes, you Palestinian Arab ladies, MuslimMuslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
and Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
, you are responsible for the integrity of the nation [watan
Al-Watan
-Anthems:*"Ardulfurataini Watan", the former national anthem of Iraq*"Aye Mere Watan Ke Logo", an Indian patriotic song written in Hindi*"Nahnu Jund Allah Jund Al-watan", the national anthem of Sudan*"Rasamna Ala Al-Qalb Wajh Al-Watan", the Army anthem of Egypt...
] and keeping Palestine Arab as it was until now. Every woman will spread the spirit of cooperation among the sons of the Arabs in the souls of her children."In 1930 Sadhij Nassar was a founding member and secretary of the Arab Women's Union in Haifa, which was one of the more militant branches of the women's movement during the British Mandate
British Mandate
British Mandate may refer to:*British Mandate for Palestine*British Mandate of Mesopotamia...
period.
Ottoman rule
In its early years, al-Karmil's editorial line reflected a positive approach toward the ruling imperial authorities, the TurkishTurkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
Committee of Union and Progress
Committee of Union and Progress
The Committee of Union and Progress began as a secret society established as the "Committee of Ottoman Union" in 1889 by the medical students İbrahim Temo, Abdullah Cevdet, İshak Sükuti and Ali Hüseyinzade...
(CUP), but by 1911, like most other pan-Arabist
Pan-Arabism
Pan-Arabism is an ideology espousing the unification--or, sometimes, close cooperation and solidarity against perceived enemies of the Arabs--of the countries of the Arab world, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea. It is closely connected to Arab nationalism, which asserts that the Arabs...
thinkers, it switched to opposing the CUP because of its perceived bias in favor of Zionism. Among the contributing writers to al-Karmil were many who had participated in the Arab revolt
Arab Revolt
The Arab Revolt was initiated by the Sherif Hussein bin Ali with the aim of securing independence from the ruling Ottoman Turks and creating a single unified Arab state spanning from Aleppo in Syria to Aden in Yemen.- Background :...
of 1916, such as Druze
Druze
The Druze are an esoteric, monotheistic religious community, found primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, which emerged during the 11th century from Ismailism. The Druze have an eclectic set of beliefs that incorporate several elements from Abrahamic religions, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism...
intellectual Ali Nasir al-Din and educator and journalist Hamdi al-Husayni.
British Mandate rule
In the late 1930s, Sadhij Nassar was described by the British authorities as "a menace to public security" and a "prominent agitator". Arrested in March 1939 by British police and held in administrative detentionAdministrative detention
Administrative detention is arrest and detention of individuals by the state without trial, usually for security reasons. A large number of countries, both democratic and undemocratic, resort to administrative detention as a means to combat terrorism, control illegal immigration, or to protect the...
under the Defense Emergency Regulations
Defence (Emergency) Regulations
The Defence Regulations are an expansive set of regulations that were first enacted by the Mandatory authorities in British Mandate Palestine on 27 September 1945...
in a women's prison in Bethlehem
Bethlehem
Bethlehem is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank of the Jordan River, near Israel and approximately south of Jerusalem, with a population of about 30,000 people. It is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate of the Palestinian National Authority and a hub of Palestinian culture and tourism...
until February 1940, when she was detained because "she was actively engaged in subversive propaganda." After her release, she returned to editing al-Karmil, serving as the editor between 1941 and 1944, when the newspaper was operating without a permit after the British authorities had refused to issue one.She continued her activities in the women's movement until 1948, when she became a refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
and wrote for various publications in London and in Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
, where she tried to open a branch of the Arab Women's Union. She is believed to have died in Damascus during the 1970s.