Kol HaAm
| Owner(s) | Maki |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1937 |
| Language | Hebrew |
| Ceased publication | 1975 |
Kol HaAm (Hebrew: קול העם, lit. "Voice of the People") was a Hebrew-language newspaper in Mandate Palestine and Israel, owned by the Israeli Communist Party.
History
Established in 1937, the paper appointed Communist Party member Esther Vilenska editor in 1943, and chief editor in 1947. Vilenska's second husband, Zvi Breidstein, was also an editor of the paper.
In 1953 Kol HaAm and its Arabic-language sister newspaper Al-Ittihad published a controversial article on the Korean War, which resulted in the Minister of Internal Affairs Israel Rokach, ordering the paper to close for 15 days. The papers filed a petition to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the suspension had been wrongly issued and should be set aside.[1] The ruling had utilised the declaration of independence in making its judgement on the issue of free speech, the first time the declaration had been used as an instrument for interpretation.[1] What became known as the "Kol HaAm decision" also set the precedent that newspapers could only be shut down if it was an "almost certain" danger to national security.[2]
The newspaper ceased publication in 1975.
Writers
Writers for the paper included:
References
- ^ a b Schmidt, Y (2008) Foundations of Civil and Political Rights in Israel and the Occupied Territories, GRIN Verlag, p. 126.
- ^ "Government orders closure of Arab weekly", Reporters Without Borders, 24 December 2002.