Twenty thousand!

With its exuberant presence and its rich, warm, and abundant giving, Al-Quds today turns 20,000 in its long history, and it is at its most radiant with what it offers in terms of new content, elegant form, and high ceilings of freedom, integrating with its parallel digital arms, making it a destination for those seeking reliable news, in a time when fake news is spreading like mushrooms after rain on the walls of new media, whose owners seek “trends” at the expense of truth.

Because it was, and still is, a landmark in the media landscape, a saying has been circulating in past eras, reflecting the extent of the newspaper's presence in the collective consciousness: "Whoever dies and their obituary is not published in Al-Quds, it is as if they never died. Whoever succeeds and their congratulations are not published in Al-Quds, it is as if they never succeeded."

By royal decree, Al-Quds was born on March 7, 1967, by merging the Al-Jihad and Al-Difaa newspapers, and was published in the city of Jerusalem. Meanwhile, the Filastin and Al-Manar newspapers were merged to create Al-Dustour newspaper in Amman. However, Al-Quds quickly stopped publication for more than a year, following the 1967 war, before resuming publication on November 19, 1968.

The competition was fierce between the daily newspapers published in the Holy City, Al-Quds, Al-Fajr, Al-Shaab, and Al-Nahar. I was honored to be the editor-in-chief of Al-Shaab after the dismissal of its editor-in-chief, my friend Akram Haniyeh, in 1986. One of the funny things about this competition was that Mahmoud Yaish, the owner of Al-Shaab, may God have mercy on him, had a beautiful presence. He would get angry if a piece of news was published in Al-Quds but not in Al-Shaab. One morning, he started to reprimand me about a piece of news published in Al-Quds but not in Al-Shaab. When I denied hearing about the news, he confirmed its existence and had placed his hand on it published in the newspaper. I then said to him, “Brother Abu Ali, you put your finger on a piece of news on the page ‘Jerusalem Twenty Years Ago,’” and we laughed, along with everyone in the newsroom.

In the twentieth century of the newspaper that drove the media landscape, we remember the departed editors and staff who gave their pens and souls to ensure the newspaper's continued daily publication. Foremost among them was the newspaper's owner and founder, the late Mahmoud Abu Al-Zuluf, who was generous and courageous, running the institution as if it were a family.