Mahmoud Abu Zuluf

Born in Jaffa in 1924, Mahmoud Abu Zuluf attended Jaffa’s famous al-Ma‘aref School as a child and went to Lebanon for university, receiving his bachelor’s degree in media from the American University of Beirut (AUB) in 1948.1 Towering at 6 feet and 4 inches, he was a basketball star at AUB.2

When he returned from his studies in Lebanon, Abu Zuluf wrote for al-Difa‘ newspaper, one of Palestine’s most influential dailies, which had been established in Jaffa in 1934. In 1948, al-Difa‘ relocated its headquarters to Arab Jerusalem, and Abu Zuluf continued writing for it until 1953.

In 1951, he also cofounded another daily newspaper, al-Jihad, in Jerusalem with two journalists, Salim al-Sharif and Mahmoud Yaish.

In February 1967, Jordanian authorities issued a law nationalizing the press and limiting the number of daily newspapers to two, one of which would be issued in Amman and the other in Jerusalem. Abu Zuluf was thus forced to merge al-Difa‘ and al-Jihad, out of which he formed the daily Arabic al-Quds, the first issue of which was printed on March 21, 1967, in Jerusalem.

Abu Zuluf served as the owner and chief editor of al-Quds, and though the newspaper struggled in its first year, with Israel halting its production in June 1967 upon its occupation of what was then renamed East Jerusalem, Abu Zuluf persevered. In 1968, he managed to register al-Quds despite the Israeli restriction on Palestinian press. Al-Quds has been in print continuously ever since, making it the most circulated daily newspaper in Palestine.3

Based in Jerusalem, Abu Zuluf and al-Quds navigated a complex and often dangerous media landscape, both within colonized Palestine and regionally. For example, Israeli censorship and repression steadily increased as the newspaper’s reach expanded. And on the Jordanian front, too, the political developments that strained relations between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Jordanian monarchy (starting with Black September in 1970 and culminating in their rupture in 1986) directly impacted Abu Zuluf’s work.

Though he maintained a mostly nuanced and balanced approach to the Jordan-PLO quagmire in the pages of al-Quds, throughout the 1980s, Abu Zuluf grew increasingly supportive of the PLO as Jordan warmed up to Israel.4 In 1986, Jordan began distancing itself from al-Quds in favor of a new, more pro-Jordanian newspaper, al-Nahar, which was established in Jerusalem in 1986 and remained in circulation until 1997.5 And in 1987, a few months before the outbreak of the First Intifada, Abu Zuluf spoke out against Jordanian and Israeli repression of Palestinian nationalists in the West Bank, including of his colleagues.

Abu Zuluf’s statement was quoted in the New York Times on August 9, 1987: “Today in the West Bank you must either be pro-Jordanian or shut your mouth,”6 pointing out the hostile climate against the PLO and Palestinian nationalist fervor. In fact, not long before the statement, the Israeli interior ministry forbade Abu Zuluf from leaving Palestine for a year.

In 1988, after publishing a story about a failed attempt by Palestinian guerillas to enter Israel from Lebanon, Abu Zuluf was summoned before the Israeli military censor, who told him that al-Quds would be banned from circulating in the occupied West Bank and Gaza for 45 days. This, despite the fact that the same story had been reported in Hebrew-language papers. Highlighting the intensity of the surveillance, Abu Zuluf said that he offered “the censor everything, even the crossword puzzle, society stories, and birth announcements.”7

Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, particularly during the 1984–90 War of the Camps in Lebanon and the First Intifada, al-Quds played a crucial role connecting fragmented Palestinian communities across Palestine, the region, and beyond.

One of the most enduring connections developed between al-Quds and Naji al-Ali, the beloved Palestinian cartoonist, many of whose most well-known sketches first appeared in Abu Zuluf’s newspaper.

Al-Ali’s most iconic and enduring character is Handala, a refugee child who is always shown with his back turned to the reader “in protest of the world’s complicity in the occupation of Palestine.” Al-Ali famously said, “Handala was born 10 years old, and he will always be 10 years old. At that age, I left my homeland. When he returns, Handala will still be 10. And then he will start growing up.”8

Jawdat Manaa, an opinion writer for al-Quds, recounted a story about the legendary Palestinian cartoonist and Abu Zuluf.9

As Manaa explains, in 1985, al-Ali reached out to Manaa looking for a platform to publish his drawings, so Manaa connected him with Abu Zuluf. At the time, al-Ali, who had been exiled in 1948 and lived in refugee camps throughout Lebanon, had settled in London and was publishing political caricatures for the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Qabas, which had an office in west London.

When Manaa inquired how al-Ali wished to be compensated for his cartoons in al-Quds, he declined any fee, stating that he “only hoped that his drawings would be published in a newspaper in occupied Palestine.” As Manaa describes:

For nearly two years, Manaa and Abu Zuluf continued to publish al-Ali’s cartoons in al-Quds, reaching Palestinian audiences in the West Bank, Gaza, and across colonized Palestine. But on July 22, 1987, al-Ali was shot by an unknown assailant on the street outside his office at al-Qabas. After a month in the hospital, al-Ali died on August 29.11

To this day, Abu Zuluf is credited with not only offering al-Ali a platform for publishing his iconic sketches, including the famous Handala, but for also preserving the timeless cartoons in a physical and digital archive to which Palestinians everywhere have access. It was Abu Zuluf’s political and literary vision, therefore, that allowed for this powerful connection between exiled Palestinians and those within occupied Palestine to persist despite ongoing forced and engineered fragmentation.

Abu Zuluf died in Jerusalem on March 28, 2005, leaving behind his wife, Eileen, and their four children, Walid, Marwan, Ziad, and Caroline.12

Abu Zuluf’s refusal to turn his back on the Palestinian cause was reflected in every page of al-Quds, which developed an enduring influence over Palestinian national discourse in Jerusalem, across colonized Palestine, and in every corner of the world where Palestinians reside.

On April 24, 2025, al-Quds published a tribute by Dr. Dalal Saeb Erekat, the daughter of the late Palestinian politician Saeb Erekat, who remembered both her father and Abu Zuluf, as well as al-Quds newspaper. Regarding al-Quds, Erekat wrote:

Of Abu Zuluf, she wrote:

The production of knowledge about Palestine is today perhaps more targeted than ever before, whether in Palestine, regionally, or globally. The life and legacy of Mahmoud Abu Zuluf offer invaluable lessons for the endurance of this vital work in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

Abu ‘Amr, Ziad. “Notes on Palestinian Political Leadership.” Middle East Research and Information Project, September 25, 1988.

“The Death of Mahmoud Abu Zuluf, Founder of al-Quds Newspaper.” [In Arabic.] Al Jazeera, March 28, 2005.

Erekat, Dalal Saeb. “From Jerusalem to Jerusalem: Free Pen Forum.” Al-Quds, April 24, 2025.

Freed, Kenneth. “‘Papers Are Losing Credibility’: Palestinian Editors Feel Censor’s Sting.” Los Angeles Times, February 7, 1988.

Friedman, Thomas L. “Israel-Jordan Alliance Quietly Taking Root on the West Bank.” New York Times, August 9, 1987.

“Mahmoud Abu Zulof.” All 4 Palestine. Accessed April 11, 2026.

Manaa, Jawdat. “Al-Quds Newspaper: A Professional Newspaper like No Other.” Al-Quds, April 24, 2025.

“The Al-Nahar Newspaper Collection.” The Palestinian Museum Digital Archive. Accessed May 15, 2026.

“Palestinian Cartoonist’s 1987 Murder Reinvestigated.” BBC, August 29, 1997.

“World: The Voices of Palestine.” Time, April 14, 1980.

[Profile photo: Al Jazeera Arabic]