Kol HaAm was a daily Hebrew newspaper of the Communist Party of Palestine and its successor, the The Israeli Communist Party (Mki), which was published between the years 1937 and 1975. The ruling in the petition filed by the newspaper against its closure, known as the "High Court of the People's" (1953) constitutes one of the important formulations for the protection of freedom of expression in Israel.
History
"Kol Ha'am" began to be published as a monthly in August 1937 without a performance license. The newspaper identified with the policy of the Soviet Union and expressed full confidence in the Soviet regime, even during Stalin's time.
From 1942, Kol Ha'am began appearing as a weekly and following many public and legal efforts, the mandatory Ministry of the Interior granted a publication license to the newspaper. The first legal issue was published on December 20 1944.
The newspaper's editors over the years included the senior MK members: Shamuel Mikunis, Moshe Sana, Esther Wilenska, Meir Wilner and Zvi Breitstein. The poet Alexander Penn served as the editor of the newspaper's literary section for most of its existence. In the section, the works of young authors such as Hanoch Levin and David Avidan first saw the light of day.
In 1965, with the split in the MKI between the majority that took a critical approach towards the Soviet Union and the minority that remained loyal to the Soviet Union and founded the Rakha, "Kol Ha'am" remained under the control of the MKI, And the members of Rakh established a competing newspaper called "This is the way". After the split, MK remained a small opposition party, and the newspaper gradually faded until it was closed in 1975.
The newspaper did not support itself and its funding came from donations from members and friends of the PKP. The newspaper managed fundraisers to finance its activities. In the 1950s, recruitment quotas were distributed to different regions of the State of Israel, and the newspaper published how each region met the quota.
Legal battles
The newspaper's editors have been prosecuted several times for defamation. In September 1948, the newspaper accused a number of police officers of having tortured and murdered the communist activist Sioma Mironyansky in 1941, while he was serving in the Criminal Investigation Department of the Mandate Police. In response, the officers demanded that the editors of the newspaper be prosecuted for defamation Ma'ariv. However, after further examination, it was found that there is truth in the claims and an investigative committee was established to examine the circumstances of Mironyansky's murder. In February 1951, a trial was opened on charges of defamation against the newspaper's editors for an article from September 1949 in which the Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, was called a "traitor to the people", "pulling the American imperialism" and other nicknames. At the trial, Ben-Gurion claimed that the article was intended to harm Soviet Union-Israel relations. The defense attorney for the Kol HaAm argued, however, that the purpose of the trial is to suppress the Israeli Communist Party. In December 1951, the newspaper was accused of defaming the Minister of Police and inciting rebellion for an article published on July 8 1950. In July 1952 the newspaper was closed for a week because of censorship.