Paul A. Ajlouny

By Grace Halsell

(Mr. Ajlouny has asked that his picture not be run with this Profile. Read the article and you will understand why.)

Paul Ajlouny, an American citizen born in Ramallah, Palestine, became a newspaper publisher under the most unusual circumstances. His brother in law, Yusef Nasr, who founded and published Al Fajr, an Arabic language daily in Jerusalem, was abducted from his East (Arab) Jerusalem home one cold February night 12 years ago, remaining to this date a "disappeared one" an unenviable status which we here usually associate only with the former military junta regime in Argentina. After Nasr's disappearance, Ajlouni stepped in to take up the mantle of his friend's legacy.

The story of Al Fajr begins when Ajlouny and Nasr were two ambitious young Palestinians rooming together at a college in Kentucky. Nasr moved on to the University of Illinois, where he began to nourish the dream of starting up an Arabic language newspaper back home. After they both graduated, Ajlouny put up $10,000 to help launch the project. In 1972, the dream became a reality when the first edition of Al Fajr (meaning "dawn" in Arabic) appeared on the newstands.

Dealing With Israeli Censorship

What makes publication of Al Fajr possible at all is the fact that all of its machinery and tangible equipment is owned by Omar International, a New York State corporation registered to do business in Israel. This arrangement insures that any attempt at closure through expropriation would prove costly to Israel's image in America, always touted as a democratic bastion with a serious concern for human rights, including freedom of speech and the press.

Unfortunately, Ajlouni points out, the Israelis have several other methods at their disposal to control Al Fajr's freedom to print. One is having the Israeli censor reject two words out of every three submitted, forcing the publisher, in effect, to produce three newspapers in order to guarantee that one appears. Another, more subtly, method is through intimidation. Al Fajr journalists, fearful of the consequences of reporting the truth, censor themselves on certain subjects. In the back of everybody's mind, of course, is the certainty that Yusef Nasr is, in fact, dead. (Ajlouny says he has even told the Israelis that if they can produce Nasr alive he is willing to stop publication of Al Fajr.)

The most effective method of Israeli control, perhaps, is restricting distribution. Al Fajr, for instance, cannot be distributed legally in the West Bank or Gaza. It is allowed in Jerusalem and Israel, but news vendors there will not carry it. Consequently, the 5000 U.S. readers of the weekly English version, begun in 1980, may outnumber readers in Palestine itself.

Dealing With FBI Harassment

The stories Paul Ajlouny has to tell of persecution as a Palestinian are disturbingly reminiscent of the old days when everything wrong with the world was blamed on another group the Jews. The FBI once questioned him, at the time of Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York, though they had nothing specific against him. Ajlouni concluded that intimidation and harassment must have been their sole purpose. Another time the FBI seemed to think he had plans to assassinate members of Jordan's Royal family, in Washington then for a visit.

Ajlouni actually spent time in prison on highly questionable charges that he was trying to set up a satellite system for the Palestine Liberation Organization, a result he blames on a biased Prosecutor and District Attorney. "The D.A. wrote a letter to the judge claiming that I was the most dangerous undercover agent for the PLO, and therefore I should receive a ten year sentence and a $100,000 fine," Ajlouni explains. "I put up a fight and I lost. I was forced to pay a $10,000 fine, and my legal fees were in excess of $100,000. And I was given a two years' sentence."

Fortunately, Ajlouni was released after three months, when he wrote the judge a letter from jail and convinced him to reexamine the evidence and charges against him. The judge took another look, "knew it was all nonsense," and ordered his release. Paul Ajlouny is proud of the fact that, while in prison, he agitated for and won special meals for Moslem prisoners to match privileges granted other groups.

Mr. Ajlouni, a U.S. Navy veteran, is a successful businessman in spite of harassment as a Palestinian. He worked as an engineer for the Carrier Corporation and as Service Manager for the International Division of Westinghouse. He became General Manager of Kinney Mechanical Maintenance, with responsibility for maintenance of the World Trade Center in New York, two Port Authority buildings and other large businesses and apartment complexes. With obvious pride, Paul Ajlouny admits, "I know my business and conducted myself well."

Grace Halsell has covered both Korea and Vietnam as a journalist, was a White House speechwriter under Lyndon Johnson, and has written over ten books, among them the well received Journey to Jerusalem.