Origins: Lebanese daily The original
Al-Hayat started as a Lebanese daily newspaper. It was founded by
Kamel Mrowa, a Lebanese publisher, journalist, writer and ideologue, in Beirut on 28 January 1946. (He named his daughter, Hayat Mrowa (now Hayat Palumbo, Lady Palumbo), after the newspaper.) The paper had a pro-Shia stance, but was one of the critics of the Shia leader
Musa Al Sadr. Owing to the newly relaunched newspaper's majority Christian Lebanese and Christian Palestinian management, critics dubbed
Al-Hayat "a newspaper of minorities in the service of a prince," especially after publishing criticisms by
Kurds and
Shiites opposed to
Saddam Hussein. "Its ownership by Prince Khalid has meant that the paper treads softly when it comes to disquieting news about Saudi Arabia, a notable exception to its independent stand," according to a 1997 article in
The New York Times. The publication was part of an exchange between American intellectuals—including
Samuel P. Huntington,
Francis Fukuyama, and
Daniel Patrick Moynihan—and counterparts in the Europe and the Middle East over the moral foundation for the Bush administration's war against terrorism, with the first letter entitled "What We're Fighting For" published in February 2002 during the U.S. invasion of
Afghanistan. who had written a number of columns criticizing the government for inefficiencies, including a wave of mysterious deaths among camel populations. Although the government and paper both refused to officially comment, a private distribution firm in the kingdom, the National Company of Distribution, told the Associated Press that it had been told not to distribute the paper. The article added that-while sources in
Gaza reported the refusal of both
Jordan and
Egypt to host the organization—
Qatar had agreed to host its political leadership (though not its military leadership, which the article stated would likely return to Gaza), and that Hamas's political leader
Khaled Mashal would be departing
Damascus shortly to take up residence in
Doha. Anonymous Hamas officials cited pressure from the government to take a clear stance against the protests. In 2019, the paper stopped updating its website, and in March 2020 the editor-in-chief announced the paper's official closure. Some Middle East watchers speculated that
Al-Hayat financial difficulties stemmed from the pressure campaign that
Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, was waging on his potential rivals.
Al-Hayat owner Khalid bin Sultan Al Saud is the son of
Sultan bin Abdulaziz, the former crown prince of Saudi Arabia and younger brother of
King Salman. Other sources argue that
Al-Hayat simply failed to compete in a challenging media environment. ==Organization==