‘The Paper Wars’ of the Israeli Press in the Early Years of the State

Abstract

One of the Hebrew press’s most fascinating struggles in the early days of the state was the war on paper. The fledgling government reduced the amount of paper for the dailies due to budgetary constraints and a dire lack of foreign currency. ‘Battles’ erupted between the government and the press and among the newspapers themselves that were fueled by political, economic, professional and interests, as well as suspicion and mutual accusation.

Based on archival documentation, the article breaks new ground in revealing how the government issued directives that were designed to cut back the size and of number of newspapers, and block any attempt by the press to circumvent the regulations Government ministers and parliamentarians spent a disproportionate amount of time wrangling over the issue, as though it were the most important problem facing the young state. So absorbed were they with the ‘paper war’ that the government’s stability was compromised. The authors call into question the severity of the paper crisis and claim that the situation was often less critical than its depiction in the press.