190 • chapter 5
religious court of the local chief rabbi.^22 In egypt, Nissim Malul con-
tinued his education in Jewish religious subjects, but he also formally
studied arabic language and literature. he began publishing frequent
articles in the newspaper al- Muqaṭṭam before he too returned to pal-
estine in 1911, where he lived an active intellectual and political life
until his death in 1959 at the age of sixty- seven.
We will return to Moyal and Malul in significant detail in the pages
that follow; for the moment, though, it is important to note that it
was Jews such as these who were the first to express concern about
the opposition to Zionism emerging in the newly aggressive and self-
confident arabic press. the Sephardic- edited newspaper ha- Ḥerut, an-
alyzed in chapter 3, was preoccupied with the problem of the anti-
Zionist arabic press and was in the forefront of what soon became a
Zionist communal and institutional obsession. in its very first month of
publication, May 1909, ha- Ḥerut printed a supplement on the subject
of the arabic press,^23 and within two months the paper was issuing
regular and frequent warnings of the “Danger!” in what it identified
as the “anti- Semitic” arabic press.^24 While several newspapers were
discussed, before long the primary target of Zionist concern was the
haifa- based al- Karmil, the “known enemy- of- Israel newspaper” edited
by Najib Nassar, whose arabic translation of richard Gottheil’s “Zion-
ism” encyclopedia entry so worried Moyal.^25
the concern about an assertive arabic press opposed to Zionism
filtered from the alarmist articles on the pages of periodicals such
as ha- Ḥerut to the Zionist institutional leadership in palestine, Con-
stantinople, and Berlin. the Zionist organization’s palestine office,^26
which had been founded in 1908, took heed of the phenomenon and,
in 1911, created its own press Bureau, charged with, inter alia, prepar-
ing regular reports on the arabic press’s articles that related to Jews
and Zionism.^27 the press Bureau paid Nissim Malul a salary to prepare
(^22) For some of Malul’s biographical details, see the obituary- commentary: Yisraʾel
Ben- Zeʾev, “ha- ʿitonaʾi ve- ha- ʿaskan d”r Nissim Malul z”l.” See also Jacobson, “From em-
pire to empire,” 183– 184; Naṣṣār, Mawqif aṣ- ṣiḥāfa al- miṣriyya min aṣ- ṣahyūniyya khilāl
al- fatra min 1897– 1917 , 110– 12.
(^23) the supplement featured the editor’s interview with Shimon Moyal. ha- Ḥerut 1:4
(May 21, 1909), Supplement.
(^24) See, for instance, ha- Ḥerut 1:24 (July 23, 1909), 1.
(^25) ha- Ḥerut 2:60 (February 14, 1910), 2.
(^26) on the palestine office and its head, arthur ruppin, see penslar, Zionism and Tech-
nocracy, 77, 80– 102.
(^27) See ruppin’s “Concerning the establishment of a press Bureau” letter to the Zionist
central Bureau in Berlin, october 6, 1911, cZa Z3.1447. though the press Bureau’s
primary responsibilities related to the arabic press, it was also charged with reviewing
the turkish and French press in Constantinople and, “if possible,” sending letters to large