Wafa (, , an acronym of , ), also referred to in English as the Palestine News Agency and the Palestinian News & Info Agency, is the official state-run

news agency A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and All-news radio, radio and News broadcasting, television Broadcasting, broadcasters. A news agency ma ...

of the

Palestinian National Authority The Palestinian Authority (PA), officially known as the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), is the Fatah-controlled government body that exercises partial civil control over the Palestinian enclaves in the Israeli-occupied West Bank as a c ...

(PNA). Before the formation of the PNA in 1994, Wafa was the official news agency of the

Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ) is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist coalition that is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinians, Palestinian people in both the occupied Pale ...

. Wafa, like the PNA's other media outlets, are considered to be aligned with

Fatah Fatah ( ; ), formally the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (), is a Palestinian nationalist and Arab socialist political party. It is the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and ...

. The president of the PA appoints WAFA's head, and the organization is viewed an arm of the Palestinian government, rather than an independent agency that criticizes the Palestinian government. ''Wafa'' provides daily news from

Palestinian territories The occupied Palestinian territories, also referred to as the Palestinian territories, consist of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip—two regions of the former Mandate for Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine ...

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

and the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

, and is available in English,

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

and

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

History

Early years (1972–1994)

Following a decision at the

Palestinian National Council The Palestinian National Council (PNC; ) is the legislative body - in Arabic, the ''Majlis'' - of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The PNC is intended to serve as the parliament that represents all Palestinians inside and outside th ...

's special session in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

in April 1972, the

Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization The Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO EC; ) is the highest executive body of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and acts as the government of the State of Palestine.

announced the establishment of Wafa as the official news agency of the Palestinians, based in

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

on June 5, 1972. While initially Wafa focused on publishing "the official version of news about Palestinian affairs," especially military statements of its revolutionary leadership, Wafa's work gradually expanded. It began issuing ''felasteen el-thawra'' (meaning "Palestinian revolution"), a weekly magazine headed by Ahmed Abdel-Rahman. During PLO's presence in Lebanon, Wafa was frequently quoted by foreign correspondents and news agencies. According to Kenneth R. Timmerman, writing for ''

Commentary Commentary or commentaries may refer to: Publications * ''Commentary'' (magazine), a U.S. public affairs journal, founded in 1945 and formerly published by the American Jewish Committee * Caesar's Commentaries (disambiguation), a number of works ...

'', Wafa was instrumental in shaping the Western narrative of the

1982 Lebanon War The 1982 Lebanon War, also called the Second Israeli invasion of Lebanon, began on 6 June 1982, when Israel invaded southern Lebanon. The invasion followed a series of attacks and counter-attacks between the Palestine Liberation Organization ...

: Following the PLO's ouster from Lebanon during the

, Wafa resumed its activities in

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

and

Tunis Tunis (, ') is the capital city, capital and largest city of Tunisia. The greater metropolitan area of Tunis, often referred to as "Grand Tunis", has about 2,700,000 inhabitants. , it is the third-largest city in the Maghreb region (after Casabl ...

from November 1982.

Under the PA (1994–2005)

As a consequence of the

Oslo Accords The Oslo Accords are a pair of interim agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): the Oslo I Accord, signed in Washington, D.C., in 1993; and the Oslo II Accord, signed in Taba, Egypt, in 1995. They marked the st ...

in 1994, the PLO's media institutions transferred to the aegis of the

Palestinian Authority The Palestinian Authority (PA), officially known as the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), is the Fatah-controlled government body that exercises partial civil control over the Palestinian enclaves in the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, ...

. Wafa opened offices in

Gaza City Gaza City, also called Gaza, is a city in the Gaza Strip, Palestine, and the capital of the Gaza Governorate. Located on the Mediterranean coast, southwest of Jerusalem, it was home to Port of Gaza, Palestine's only port. With a population of ...

and

Ramallah Ramallah ( , ; ) is a Palestinians, Palestinian city in the central West Bank, that serves as the administrative capital of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the Judaean Mountains, north of Jerusalem, at an average elevation of abov ...

Under Mahmoud Abbas (2004–present)

In April 2005,

Mahmoud Abbas Mahmoud Abbas (; born 15 November 1935), also known by the Kunya (Arabic), kunya Abu Mazen (, ), is a Palestinian politician who has been serving as the second president of Palestine and the President of the Palestinian National Authority, P ...

transferred the PNA's media assets, including Wafa, to the Palestinian Ministry of Information under

Nabil Shaath Nabil Ali Muhammad (Abu Rashid) Shaath (, ; born 9 August 1938 in Safad) is a Palestinian politician, banker, management and development expert. Academic career Shaath received his master's degree in finance from the Wharton School of the Uni ...

. At the same time, he merged the General Information Commission into Wafa. Wafa was previously under the PA presidency and the PLO Executive Committee. Palestinian journalists had complained about the PNA's strict control over official media outlets, and the move was seen as an attempt to improve the official media's independence. Hamas won the

2006 Palestinian legislative election Legislative elections were held in the Palestinian territories on 25 January 2006 in order to elect the second Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), the legislature of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). The result was a victory for Hama ...

and to preempt Hamas from asserting control of the media assets, Abbas transferred them back to the presidential office. In September 2006, gunmen stormed Wafa's offices in

Khan Younis Khan Yunis (), also spelled Khan Younis or Khan Yunus, is a city in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestine, and serves as the capital of the Khan Yunis Governorate. It has been largely destroyed during the Gaza war. Before the 14th century, Khan ...

and smashed equipment and beat up one reporter. In 2015, Abbas appointed Khoulud Asaf as the new head of WAFA, the first female head of the organization. The president of the PA appoints WAFA's head, and the organization is viewed an arm of the Palestinian government, rather than an independent agency that criticizes the Palestinian government. On December 10, 2018, Israeli soldiers raided Wafa's offices in Ramallah and fired tear gas into the building as part of a manhunt for gunmen involved in a December 9 attack that wounded seven Israeli civilians. The Palestinian Journalists' Union, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry, the

Organisation of Islamic Cooperation The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC; ; ), formerly the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, is an intergovernmental organisation founded in 1969. It consists of Member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, 57 member s ...

, and the

International Federation of Journalists The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is the largest global union federation of journalists' trade unions in the world. It represents more than 600,000 media workers from 187 organisations in 146 countries. The IFJ is an associate ...

condemned the Israeli action. In 2019, Wafa won the

Federation of Arab News Agencies The Federation of Arab News Agencies (FANA; ), a branch of the Arab League, is a membership organization for Arabic-language, national news agencies, currently of 19 members and established in 1975 in Beirut, Lebanon. Mission FANA's mission i ...

award for best report, a regional organization of national news agencies in the

Arab World The Arab world ( '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in West Asia and North Africa. While the majority of people in ...

Foreign language editions

In October 2005, Wafa re-launched its French service. The French service had previously operated in

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

until 1994. In 2009, Wafa launched a

version of its website; the content of this service would focus on

Arab citizens of Israel The Arab citizens of Israel form the country's largest ethnic minority. Their community mainly consists of former Palestinian Citizenship Order 1925, Mandatory Palestine citizens (and their descendants) who continued to inhabit the territory ...

. It also started mailing a daily newsletter to Israeli members of the Knesset and Hebrew media outlets. Wafa ceased its Hebrew service in 2016. In 2022, Wafa relaunched its Hebrew service in order to "convey the Palestinian point of view to Israeli society", according to Wafa's editor-in-chief.

References

External links

Wafa website

The occupation soldiers storm the headquarters of Wafa in Ramallah (video)
{{Authority control 1972 establishments in Lebanon Arabic-language websites English-language websites Hebrew-language websites News agencies based in Palestine Multilingual websites Palestine Liberation Organization Palestinian news websites State media Arab news agencies