''HaOlam HaZeh'' ( he, העולם הזה, lit. ''This World'') was a weekly news magazine published in
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
until 1993.
The magazine was founded in 1937 under the name ''Tesha BaErev'' (Hebrew: תשע בערב, ''Nine in the Evening'') but was renamed ''HaOlam HaZeh'' in 1946. In 1950 it was bought by
Uri Avnery
Uri Avnery ( he, אורי אבנרי, also transliterated Uri Avneri; 10 September 1923 – 20 August 2018) was an Israeli writer, politician, and founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement. A member of the Irgun as a teenager, Avnery sat for tw ...
,
Shalom Cohen, and two others who soon withdrew.
Under Avnery's leadership, the magazine became famous for its highly unorthodox and irreverent style. Its news focussed on investigative reports, often presented in sensationalist fashion, which provoked anger from the Israeli establishment and disdain from Israel's mainstream press. Government ministers regularly called for it to be shut down, especially when it had exposed (or claimed to expose) some government scandal. For a few years, the government even secretly financed a rival magazine ''Rimon'' in a failed attempt to counter ''HaOlam HaZeh's'' popularity. Sometimes mainstream publications leaked stories that they felt unable to publish themselves to ''HaOlam HaZeh''.
Jacob Shavit writes that "from 1957 on, ''Ha-Olam ha-Zeh'' became the main forum" for advocacy of a Palestinian state.
Starting in 1959, the magazine had a "two cover" design, with the front cover presenting serious journalism and the back cover presenting sensational articles of a gossipy or sexual nature, sometimes displaying naked women. Under one of these back covers, titled "''Special Report: The Lesbian Problem in Israel'' (Hebrew: "דו״ח מיוחד: הבעיה הלסבית בישראל"), the magazine covered the publication of
Rina Ben-Menahem
Sara Rina Ben-Menahem (26 June 1935 – 12 June 2004) was an Israelis, Israeli writer, author of the first Hebrew language book to describe the Homosexuality, homosexual and lesbian scene in Israel, "הדווקאים", published in 1960, and the ...
's first book, "HaDavka'im" (Hebrew: הדווקאים – ''The Spiteful Doers'').
In the mid-1960s the papers owners, Avnery and Cohen entered politics, founding a new party, which they named after the paper:
HaOlam HaZeh – Koah Hadash. Avnery was elected to the Knesset in the
1965 election and Cohen joined him when the party picked up another seat in the
1969 election. However, Cohen left the party in 1972 and the following year Avnery renamed it
Meri.
Stories
Stories in which ''HaOlam HaZeh's'' reporting played an important part included the massacre at
Qibya
Qibya ( ar, قبية) is a Palestinian village in the West Bank, located northwest of Ramallah and exactly north of the large Israeli city of Modi'in. It is part of the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, and according to the Palestinian Central Bu ...
(after which Avnery and Cohen were allegedly beaten up by members of the IDF unit that had conducted the raid), the
Kasztner libel trial, the
Kafr Qasim massacre
The Kafr Qasim massacre took place in the Israeli Arab village of Kafr Qasim situated on the Green Line, at that time, the de facto border between Israel and the Jordanian West Bank on October 29, 1956. It was carried out by the Israel Bor ...
, and
Ben Dunkelman
Benjamin "Ben" Dunkelman (26 June 1913 – June 11, 1997) was a Canadian Jewish officer who served in the Canadian Army in World War II and the Israel Defense Forces in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. In Israel, he was called Benjamin Ben-David.
Biog ...
's story about the aborted attempt to expel the inhabitants of
Nazareth (in HaOlam HaZeh July 1980). In 1984 it was the first to publish one of the pictures of a prisoner being taken from
Bus 300 disproving army statements that all the hijackers had died when the bus was stormed.
[Christopher Walker, The Times. 26 April 1984. "Doubts raised on killing reinforced by photograph."]
References
External links
''HaOlam HaZeh''
{{Newspapers of Israel
1937 establishments in Mandatory Palestine
1993 disestablishments in Israel
Defunct magazines published in Israel
Magazines established in 1937
Magazines disestablished in 1993
News magazines published in Israel
Weekly magazines