The Palestine Communist Party ( yi, פאלעסטינישע קומוניסטישע פארטיי, ''Palestinische Komunistische Partei'', abbreviated PKP; ar, الحزب الشيوعي الفلسطيني) was a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

in British Mandate of Palestine formed in 1923 through the merger of the Palestinian Communist Party and the Communist Party of Palestine. In 1924 the party was recognized as the Palestinian section of the

Communist International The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by ...

.''Early Communism in Palestine'', Fred Halliday, Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Winter, 1978), pp. 162-169 In its early years, the party was predominantly Jewish, but nevertheless held an

anti-Zionist Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism. Although anti-Zionism is a heterogeneous phenomenon, all its proponents agree that the creation of the modern State of Israel, and the movement to create a sovereign Jewish state in the region of Palesti ...

position.

History

In 1923, at the party congress, a position of support was adopted in favour of the

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

national movement as a movement "opposed to British imperialism and denounced

Zionism Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after '' Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...

as a movement of the Jewish

bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. Th ...

allied to British imperialism", a move that won it membership of the

Comintern The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by ...

. The Party was also opposed to Zionist settlement in Palestine and to the

Histadrut Histadrut, or the General Organization of Workers in Israel, originally ( he, ההסתדרות הכללית של העובדים בארץ ישראל, ''HaHistadrut HaKlalit shel HaOvdim B'Eretz Yisrael''), is Israel's national trade union center ...

and its Jewish labor policy. During the mid-1920s the party began recruiting Arab members.

Karl Radek Karl Berngardovich Radek (russian: Карл Бернгардович Радек; 31 October 1885 – 19 May 1939) was a Russian revolutionary and a Marxist active in the Polish and German social democratic movements before World War I and a ...

, as head of the

's Eastern department, instructed the PCP that it must "become a party of Arab workers to which Jews can belong." According to British intelligence sources, the first Arab joined the party in 1924. By 1925 the party had 8 Arab members. In that year the party was in contact with the Palestine Arab Workers Society. Simultaneously the party establish relations with elite sections of the local Arab society. According to Fred Halliday, many Christian Arabs were attracted towards the party since they, being Orthodox, felt emotional bonds with

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

. Representatives from the party at the League against Imperialism's 1927 conference in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

clashed with

Poale Zion Poale Zion (also spelled Poalei Tziyon or Poaley Syjon, meaning "Workers of Zion") was a movement of Marxist– Zionist Jewish workers founded in various cities of Poland, Europe and the Russian Empire in about the turn of the 20th century a ...

, forming an anti-Zionist bloc with Arab nationalists from Palestine,

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

and

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

within the League. However, when the Comintern made its ultra-left turn in 1928 and denounced cooperation with national bourgeoisies in the colonies, the process of strengthening of the party amongst the Arab population was stalled. In 1930 the Comintern did yet another sharp turn, urging its Palestinian section to speedily increase the Arab representation amongst its cadres and leaders. In December 1930, PCP ran in the elections for the

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

Assembly of Representatives in Mandate Palestine, using a front organization called the Proletarian Party (Harishima Haproletarit). The party failed dismally. During the rule of

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet Union, Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as Ge ...

, the party militants in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

suffered from heavy purges, including numerous people close to party leader Leopold Trepper. Daniel Averbach, one of the founders of the party, was brutally beaten and went mad. Tepper, himself, was expelled from Palestine by the British in 1929 and moved to Europe. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, he led the Red Orchestra spy ring. In 1934 Radwan Al Hilu, a Palestinian Arab, was appointed by the Comintern as the secretary general of the party which he held until hisresignation from the party in 1943. In 1943 the party split, with the Arab members forming the National Liberation League in 1944. The PCP and NLL both initially opposed the 1947 UN Partition Plan, but accepted it after the Soviet Union endorsed it. The PCP changed its name to MAKEI, the Communist Party of

Eretz Israel The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine (see also Israe ...

, after endorsing partition in October 1947. This was the first time the communists had used the term 'Eretz Israel' ('Land of Israel') in a party's name. However, it had been a widespread practice in Mandate Palestine to translate 'Palestine' as 'Eretz Israel' when translating into Hebrew.Beinin 46 The party still viewed partition as a temporary detour on the road to a binational state. The two parties maintained contact during the 1948 war, and after the war, the NLL merged with Maki (the new name adopted by Maki, meaning the Communist Party of Israel) within the new state's borders. From 1951 the Jordanian Communist Party organized Palestinians in the

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

while a new Palestinian Communist Organization mobilized members in

Gaza City Gaza (;''The New Oxford Dictionary of English'' (1998), , p. 761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory in Palestine, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza...". ar, غَزَّة ', ), also referred to as Gaza City, i ...

. In 1975 a Palestinian Communist Organization was formed in the West Bank as a branch of the Jordanian party. In 1982 it severed ties with Jordan and merged with the organization in Gaza to become the new Palestine Communist Party. This Party later became the Palestinian People's Party. In 1987, it joined the

Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establishing Arab unity and sta ...

.Kawar, 1996, p. xii.

References

Bibliography

* Suliman Bashear (1980). ''Communism in the Arab East: 1918–28''. London: Ithaca Press. *Bernstein, Deborah S. (2000). ''Constructing Boundaries: Jewish and Arab Workers in Mandatory Palestine''. SUNY Press. * Beinin, Joel (1990). ''Was the Red Flag Flying There?: Marxist Politics and the Arab-Israeli Conflict in Egypt and Israel, 1948-1965''. Berkeley: University of California Press *Connell, Dan (2001). ''Rethinking Revolution: New Strategies for Democracy & Social Justice: The Experiences of Eritrea, South Africa, Palestine and Nicaragua''. The Red Sea Press. *Kawar, Amal (1996). ''Daughters of Palestine: Leading Women of the Palestinian National Movement''. SUNY Press. *Younis, Mona M. (2000). ''Liberation and Democratization: The South African & Palestinian National Movements''. University of Minnesota Press. *Ran Greenstein
"Class, Nation, and Political Organization: The Anti-Zionist Left in Israel/Palestine"
''International Labor and Working-Class History'', Volume 75, Issue 1, Spring 2009, pp. 85 - 108.

External link

marxists.org Marxists Internet Archive (also known as MIA or Marxists.org) is a non-profit online encyclopedia that hosts a multilingual library (created in 1990) of the works of communist, anarchist, and socialist writers, such as Karl Marx, Friedrich En ...

{{Authority control 1923 establishments in Mandatory Palestine Anti-Zionist political parties Comintern sections Communist parties in Mandatory Palestine Jewish anti-Zionism in Israel Political parties established in 1923 Political parties with year of disestablishment missing Anti-Zionism in Mandatory Palestine

History

See also

References

Bibliography

External link