The book 'The Palestinian Communist Party from Foundation to Change' by researcher Muhammad Mansour Abu Rukba opens a thorny file in contemporary Palestinian political history. The study, published by Dar Al-Sawma'a in 2026, reviews the path of one of the oldest political movements in the region, which witnessed complex overlaps between international ideology and the national liberation question.
The historical reading confirms that communism in Palestine was at the forefront of those who confronted settler colonialism from its very beginnings under the British Mandate. The party directed its struggles against systematic Jewish immigration, warning of its danger in changing the national demography and forming a foreign majority in the country.
The early communists defined their main goal as liquidating the occupation and ensuring the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination through an independent democratic government. Despite their initial rejection of partition plans, the international balance of power at the time pushed them to approve UN Resolution 181 of 1947.
The issue of national unity formed a fundamental pillar in the party's literature, where it was seen as a scientific necessity for analyzing the reality of social classes and their interests. The party criticized limiting unity to armed factions only, calling for expanding the representative base to include popular and economic forces hostile to the occupation.
Communist activity in Palestine began to extend to the Arab periphery in the mid-1920s, which alarmed the British and French Mandate authorities. The party believed that the Arab East was a single unit with common interests, and that the existing fragmentation was the result of conflicting colonial settlements.
Britain imposed a strict intellectual blockade to prevent the infiltration of Russian Revolution principles into Palestine, fearing their anti-imperialist effects. Nevertheless, these ideas reached through newcomers who were influenced by global transformations, contributing to the formation of the first nucleus of the labor and trade union movement.
The party was officially founded in Jaffa in 1919 and soon joined the 'Comintern' in Moscow to become part of the global communist system. Its early leaders warned against being led by Zionist policies, calling for the search for formulas of coexistence based on social justice.
The problem of 'Arabization of the Party' emerged as one of the most complex issues in its journey, facing resistance from some Jewish elements within the leadership. The Comintern's condition was clear: Arabs must be given a leading role commensurate with their being the overwhelming majority in the country.
To solve the cadre crisis, the party dispatched the first group of Arab communists to Moscow in 1927 to receive political and organizational education. Among these leaders were Radwan Al-Helou and Nejati Sidqi, who played a pivotal role in directing the party's activity towards Arab farmers and workers.
In 1943, the 'National Liberation League' was established as a broad national leftist framework comprising Arab intellectuals and workers in Palestine. The League was not merely a party split, but represented a political vanguard aiming to protect the social and economic demands of the masses in the face of colonialism.
Emile Touma, one of the most prominent leaders of the League, affirmed that this organization was born out of the Palestinian society's need for a party that carries the progressive heritage of the nation. The League considered itself an integral part of the Palestinian national movement, with an emphasis on the class dimension in the struggle against imperialism.
After 1948 and the establishment of the occupation state, Arab communists faced dramatic transformations in their political and organizational reality. While some agreed to the partition resolution and integrated into new frameworks, others opposed this path, leading to the emergence of deep intellectual crises within the movement.
The post-Nakba period witnessed a division in attitudes towards Israeli policies, the Soviet Union, and the Arab nationalist tide led by Gamal Abdel Nasser. The anti-Zionist current within the party struggled against the military rule imposed on Palestinians in the occupied territories in 1948.
The book concludes by documenting the role of communist intellectuals and poets who became national symbols deeply rooted in the homeland's soil. These individuals provided models of sacrifice in defending the rights of the working class, making the communist school a fundamental source of Palestinian revolutionary thought.
Palestinian communists realized early on that in order to defeat the forces of colonialism and Zionism, a national alliance based on anti-imperialism was necessary.
شارك برأيك
Palestine and the Early Left: A New Book Documents the Journey of the Communist Party from the Mandate to the Nineties