Palestine Post Prints First Edition

December 1, 1932

The Palestinian Post, the precursor of The Jerusalem Post, prints and distributes 1,200 copies of its first, eight-page edition.

Founded by Gershon Agron, a Ukrainian-born immigrant from the United States, The Palestine Post launches in Jerusalem with more production workers than writers and, as it acknowledges with a note to readers in the second edition, immediately runs into trouble fulfilling the demand for an English-language newspaper in Mandatory Palestine. That note recognizes the important of timely delivery and promises to do a better job meeting the needs of readers, especially those in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jaffa.

The Post nearly quadruples its circulation within a year. It develops a readership among British government personnel as well as Jewish and Arab civilians with its coverage of events throughout the region. The newspaper gains readers in Egypt and runs a bureau in Beirut for a time. 

On Feb. 1, 1948, amid months of pre-independence violence, Arab terrorists bomb the Post’s offices with a stolen British army truck packed with 1,000 pounds of TNT. The explosion goes off around 11 p.m., while Post staffers are finishing the next morning’s paper. Several people are killed, and the presses are destroyed. But the staff puts out an abbreviated paper using another company’s press, and the Post resumes normal operations within a week.

The newspaper remains The Palestine Post until a young employee, Meir Ronnen, asks Agron in 1950 why the name hasn’t changed even though there’s no more Palestine. The next day, The Jerusalem Post rolls off the presses.