The Palestinian Democratic Union ( ''Al-Ittihad al-Dimuqrati al-Filastini''), generally known as FIDA () is a small Palestinian

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

active in the

Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ) is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist coalition that is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinians, Palestinian people in both the occupied Pale ...

(PLO) and the

Palestinian National Authority The Palestinian Authority (PA), officially known as the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), is the Fatah-controlled government body that exercises partial civil control over the Palestinian enclaves in the Israeli-occupied West Bank as a c ...

(PNA).

History

FIDA emerged as a split from the

Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP; ) is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist and Maoist organization. It is also frequently referred to as the Democratic Front, or al-Jabha al-Dīmūqrāṭiyya (). It is a member ...

(DFLP)''Palestinian National Authority: The PA Ministerial Cabinet List: April 2003 – October 2003''
. Jerusalem Media and Communications Center. Archived 27 September 2007. due to disputes in the early 1990s about the policies towards Jordan, the Oslo peace process and the

First Intifada The First Intifada (), also known as the First Palestinian Intifada, was a sustained series of Nonviolent resistance, non-violent protests, acts of civil disobedience, Riot, riots, and Terrorism, terrorist attacks carried out by Palestinians ...

.''Abd Rabbo, Yasir''
pp. 6-7. Michael R. Fischbach, Encyclopedia of the Palestinians. Infobase Publishing, 2005 In September 1991, the party approved its political program. In April 1993, it adopted the name Palestinian Democratic Union – FIDA.
Palestinian Democratic Union. Archived 31 July 2007

Organisation

The youth wing of FIDA is known as

Independence Youth Union Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of ...

( ''Athad Shebab Alasetqelal''); there are also workers' and women's groups. FIDA has no armed wing, in contrast to the DFLP and several other Palestinian organizations.

Beliefs and ideology

The slogan of FIDA is "

freedom Freedom is the power or right to speak, act, and change as one wants without hindrance or restraint. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving oneself one's own laws". In one definition, something is "free" i ...

independence Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of ...

return Return may refer to: In business, economics, and finance * Return on investment (ROI), the financial gain after an expense. * Rate of return, the financial term for the profit or loss derived from an investment * Tax return, a blank document or t ...

democracy Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...

and

socialism Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

". It presents itself as a progressive,

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin , or or ), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. The origins of secularity can be traced to the Bible itself. The concept was fleshed out through Christian hi ...

and democratic socialist party, and espouses the

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

vocabulary of "

scientific socialism Scientific socialism in Marxism is the application of historical materialism to the development of socialism, as not just a practical and achievable outcome of historical processes, but the only possible outcome. It contrasts with utopian social ...

". FIDA took a more moderate stance than the main DFLP (led by

Nayef Hawatmeh Nayef Hawatmeh (; Kunya: Abu an-Nuf; born 17 November 1938) is a Jordanian politician who is the head of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Biography Hawatmeh hails from a Jordanian clan and is a practicing Greek Catholi ...

and based in

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

) towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and has tried to establish itself as a left-wing democratic alternative in Palestinian politics. It advocates a

two-state solution The two-state solution is a proposed approach to resolving the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, by creating two states on the territory of the former Mandatory Palestine. It is often contrasted with the one-state solution, which is the esta ...

based on the borders of 1967 and with

East Jerusalem East Jerusalem (, ; , ) is the portion of Jerusalem that was Jordanian annexation of the West Bank, held by Jordan after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, as opposed to West Jerusalem, which was held by Israel. Captured and occupied in 1967, th ...

as the capital of an independent

Palestinian state Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, collectively known as th ...

. A prominent FIDA leader, Mamduh Nofal, in 2002 signed an appeal to stop

suicide bombings A suicide attack (also known by a wide variety of other names, see below) is a deliberate attack in which the perpetrators knowingly sacrifice their own lives as part of the attack. These attacks are a form of murder–suicide that is ofte ...

. The party has held two National Conferences, the first in

Jericho Jericho ( ; , ) is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, and the capital of the Jericho Governorate. Jericho is located in the Jordan Valley, with the Jordan River to the east and Jerusalem to the west. It had a population of 20,907 in 2017. F ...

in 1995 and the second in 2000.

FIDA leadership

FIDA was founded by

Yasser Abd Rabbo Yasser Abed Rabbo () also known by his '' kunya'', Abu Bashar () (born 1944) is a Palestinian politician and a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) Executive Committee. Biography Early life and career Born in Jaffa in 1944, ...

, a pro-peace moderate, who then represented the organization in the

's (PLO)

Executive Committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...

, where he worked as an advisor to

Yassir Arafat Yasser Arafat (4 or 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), also popularly known by his kunya Abu Ammar, was a Palestinian political leader. He was chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1969 to 2004, President of the Stat ...

. In 2002, he resigned from the party after internal disputes.

Women's rights Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...

activist

Zahira Kamal Zahira Kamal () is a Palestinian activist and politician of the Palestinian Democratic Union. From 2003 to 2006 she served as the Minister of Women Affairs in the Palestinian National Authority. Zahira was the first female leader of a Palestinian ...

had been chosen in an internal election to replace him as minister in the government of the

(PNA), but Abd Rabbo refused to step down, and instead left the party. He was then able to remain in the cabinet as an independent, with the backing of Arafat, but was replaced in FIDA by

Saleh Ra'fat Saleh Ra'fat (born 1945) is a member of the executive committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation and a member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Biography Ra'fat was born in Arraba, Mandatory Palestine, in 1945. He ...

, the current Secretary-General. Zahira Kamal remains in FIDA, but outside of government. Other important FIDA leaders include Azmi ash-Shu'aybi and Mamduh Nofal.

Electoral participation

FIDA has 21 members in the PLO's

Palestine National Council The Palestinian National Council (PNC; ) is the legislative body - in Arabic, the ''Majlis'' - of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The PNC is intended to serve as the parliament that represents all Palestinians inside and outside th ...

(PNC). They were elected as DFLP delegates, or appointed to serve as delegates from various PLO branches, at the last PNC in 1988. No new elections have been held since. FIDA took part in the 1996 elections to the

Palestinian Legislative Council The Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of the Palestinian National Authority, Palestinian Authority, elected by the Palestinians, Palestinian residents of the Palestinian territories of the Wes ...

(PLC), and with Fatah backing managed to gain one seat, held by Azmi ash-Shu'aybi. Ash-Shu'aybi has been campaigning for greater parliamentary control of the executive authority and greater transparency in the

(PNA). In the January 2006 PLC elections, FIDA was part of the al-Badeel (Alternative) joint list, with the DFLP and the

Palestinian People's Party The Palestinian People's Party (PPP; ''Hizb ash-Sha'b al-Filastini''), founded in 1982 as the Palestinian Communist Party, is a socialist political party in Palestine and among the Palestinian diaspora. History The original Palestine Com ...

(PPP). The list received 2.8% of the popular vote and won two of the PLC's 132 seats. FIDA will participate in the 2021 Palestinian legislative election on a joint list with the PPP called "United Left". The list is led by Fadwa Khader, a member of the PPP's politburo.

References

External links

FIDA - Palestinian Democratic Union
official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Palestinian Democratic Union 1991 establishments in Palestine Offshoots of the Arab Nationalist Movement Democratic socialist parties in Asia Factions of the Palestine Liberation Organization Political parties established in 1991 Secularism in Palestine Socialist parties in Palestine