The new publication, called the Palestine Times, is the first of its kind - an English-language daily newspaper published in the Palestinian Authority. Editor-in-Chief Othman Haj Mohammed says that the paper has received a license from both Israeli and PA authorities. "We are also completing a contract with the largest distributor in Israel, whose details will be announced soon," he wrote in the newspaper's premier editorial.



According to Mohammed, the 12-page Palestine Times will cover local PA affairs, as well as Israeli, Arab and international affairs. He stated that the paper is privately owned and independent, and will be funded through sales and advertising. The first issue, which hit newsstands throughout the PA on Monday, carried opinion section articles by Hamas and Fatah spokesmen, as well as by an unaffiliated analyst.



In his editorial column on Monday, Mohammed wrote, "It is time that Palestinians had a daily newspaper of their own, to show a world obsessed with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that our life is more complex than this." This first-of-its-kind project took two years to put together, according to the editor.



Previous English-language newspapers published in the PA were weeklies, but all folded within several years.