RAMALLAH, Wednesday, September 14, 2022 – President Mahmoud Abbas visited today the temporary headquarters of the WAFA news agency in the city of al-Bireh and inaugurated its new office building located near the presidential headquarters.

“I am very happy to be here at WAFA, which I first attended at its inauguration in 1972,” said the President.

He added, “Media has always been, and continues to be, very important. It was at the heart of the leadership of the Palestinian revolution even before its launch, as we sought to communicate our message to the world through the primitive tools available at that time.” He noted that the late President Yasser Arafat also placed great importance on media.

“With the development of the media sector, we now have a permanent headquarters for WAFA,” he said, expressing his hope that every Palestinian institution will one day have its own building.

“All our headquarters today are temporary,” he continued. “The time will come when all of these institutions will move permanently to Jerusalem, the capital of the independent State of Palestine.”

The President also pointed out that out of 109 Palestinian embassies around the world, only four are rented, while the rest are owned by the State of Palestine.

General Supervisor of Official Media and Chairman of WAFA’s Board of Directors, Ahmad Assaf, welcomed President Abbas, noting that the visit coincides with the 50th anniversary of WAFA’s establishment in exile.

“WAFA has succeeded in preserving its credibility despite all the obstacles faced by our people due to the practices of the Israeli occupation. It has become a major source of accurate and reliable news, setting itself apart from other media institutions,” said Assaf. He added that WAFA publishes news in four languages: Arabic, English, French, and Hebrew.

Before moving to its new six-floor, 880-square-meter headquarters, WAFA had operated since 1996 from rented buildings in Ramallah. Its original headquarters were in Gaza until 2007, when it relocated to Ramallah following the Hamas takeover.