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[Q]: Can you tell more about selling HaOlam HaZeh? Closing HaOlam HaZeh?

Closing HaOlam HaZeh.  A sad chapter. What happened to HaOlam HaZeh? It happened because HaOlam HaZeh seemed to become superfluous. We were individuals, alone, who wrote everything that it was possible to publish that didn't have the slogan 'without fear and without bias'; there was almost nothing that we decided that we wouldn't publish. Really, only very special incidents. I had a rule that we never published private matters if they involved children, for instance, divorce. Nor did we publish anything that could, with any degree of certainty, endanger national security. We published everything else. Slowly, slowly, in the competition between Yediot Aharonot and Maariv, many of those barriers fell. In the first place these publications grew and swelled with supplements and more supplements, until they became booklets. A lot of things that for decades had been exclusive to HaOlam HaZeh were no longer exclusive because everyone fought among themselves and competed with one another and published most things, not on national affairs or Palestinian matters or matters of war and peace, but about corruption – to a great extent HaOlam HaZeh thrived on corruption. HaOlam Hazeh exposed the major instances of corruption for many decades although we haven't talked about this yet. When the police was in the hands of Mapai, people knew that there was only one address in the country to write to if you wanted to expose a scandal and that was HaOlam HaZeh. This monopoly was gradually eroded. Reports of corruption could be published everywhere. Yediot and Maariv competed with each other to see who would be first, who could say, 'We exposed this'. That is one thing. Secondly, the first generation of those who'd taken part in the War of Independence had passed from the world as had the second generation, and the third generation was no longer interested in all these things, no longer seriously discussed politics in general. Along came a generation of people who didn't care, and therefore HaOlam HaZeh, each edition of which cost a lot of money, was less necessary for them, and slowly the economic situation of HaOlam HaZeh became problematic, and debts began to mount.

מראיינת: אתה יכול עוד לספר על מכירת "העולם הזה"? סגירת "העולם הזה?‏"

סגירת "העולם הזה". פרק עצוב. מה קרה ל"העולם הזה"? קרה ל"העולם הזה" שנדמה היה שהוא הופך למיותר. אנחנו היינו יחידים, לבדנו, שכתבו כל מה שניתן לפרסם שאין לו הסיסמא "בלי מורא ובלי משוא פנים", שכמעט לא היה דבר שהחלטנו לא לפרסם. באמת רק מקרים מאוד מיוחדים. היה לי כלל "אנחנו לא מפרסמים עניינים פרטיים אם מעורבים בזה ילדים", גירושים למשל, דברים כאלה, או שבאמת זה מסכן את בטחון המדינה בצורה קרובה וודאית. פרסמנו את הכל. לאט לאט בתחרות בין "ידיעות אחרונות" ו"מעריב", הרבה מחסומים נפלו בעיתונים האלה. אל״ף, הם גדלו וגדלו וגדלו ותפחו ותפחו עם מוספים ומוספים ומוספים, עד שהיו קונטרסים כאלה, והרבה מאוד דברים של"העולם הזה" במשך עשרות שנים הייתה בלעדיות, כבר לא הייתה בלעדיות מפני שכולם רבו ביניהם והתחרו ביניהם ופרסמו ברוב הדברים. לא בעניינים לאומיים, לא בעניינים פלסטיניים, לא בעניינים של מלחמה ושלום. אבל כל השחיתויות, "העולם הזה" חי משחיתויות במידה רבה. "העולם הזה" חשף, את זה עוד לא סיפרנו, את השחיתויות הגדולות במשך עשרות שנים. כשהמשטרה הייתה בידי מפא"י אנשים ידעו שיש רק כתובת אחת בארץ אם אתה רוצה לגלות שערורייה וזה "העולם הזה”. והמונופול הזה לאט לאט נשבר. שחיתויות יכולת לפרסם בכל מקום. להיפך, "ידיעות" ו"מעריב" התחרו אחד בשני מי יהיה קודם, מי שיכול להגיד "אנחנו חשפנו", זה דבר אחד. דבר שני, הדור הראשון של מלחמת תש"ח עבר לו מהעולם והדור השני גם, והדור השלישי כבר לא התעניין בכל הדברים האלה, כבר לא התייחס ברצינות לפוליטיקה בכלל. בא דור של "לא איכפת'ניקים" וממילא "העולם הזה”, שעלה הרבה כסף לגיליון, היה פחות נחוץ לו ולאט לאט "העולם הזה" מצבו הכלכלי הפך לבעייתי, היו חובות.‏

Uri Avnery (1923-2018) was an Israeli writer, journalist and founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement. As a teenager, he joined the Zionist paramilitary group, Irgun. Later, Avnery was elected to the Knesset from 1965 to 1974 and from 1979 to 1981. He was also the editor-in-chief of the weekly news magazine, 'HaOlam HaZeh' from 1950 until it closed in 1993. He famously crossed the lines during the Siege of Beirut to meet Yasser Arafat on 3 July 1982, the first time the Palestinian leader ever met with an Israeli. Avnery was the author of several books about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including '1948: A Soldier's Tale, the Bloody Road to Jerusalem' (2008); 'Israel's Vicious Circle' (2008); and 'My Friend, the Enemy' (1986).

Listeners: Anat Saragusti

Anat Saragusti is a film-maker, book editor and a freelance journalist and writer. She was a senior staff member at the weekly news magazine Ha'olam Hazeh, where she was prominent in covering major events in Israel. Uri Avnery was the publisher and chief editor of the Magazine, and Saragusti worked closely with him for over a decade. With the closing of Ha'olam Hazeh in 1993, Anat Saragusti joined the group that established TV Channel 2 News Company and was appointed as its reporter in Gaza. She later became the chief editor of the evening news bulletin. Concurrently, she studied law and gained a Master's degree from Tel Aviv University.

Tags: HaOlam Hazeh, Ma’ariv, Yediot Aharonot

Duration: 3 minutes, 31 seconds

Date story recorded: October 2015

Date story went live: 26 June 2017