Palestine Communist Party (Mandatory Palestine)
팔레스타인 공산당 (위임통치기)
The communist party of Mandatory Palestine, formed in 1923 by the merger of two communist parties and recognised in 1924 as the Palestinian section of the Comintern. Initially made up mostly of Jewish immigrant workers, it was nonetheless anti-Zionist, and at the Comintern's insistence it pursued "Arabisation" to bring in Arab members and cadres. In 1943 it effectively split over the national question, its Arab members founding the National Liberation League, and in 1948 the organisations within Israel merged to form the Communist Party of Israel.
In depth
According to the Arabic source, the nucleus of the communist movement in Palestine was the Socialist Workers' Party of Palestine, formed in March 1919 by a communist group that split from Poale Zion. It split in 1922 into a party led by Joseph Berger-Barzilai and one led by Haim Auerbach, which reunited as the Palestine Communist Party at the fifth congress in July 1923. That congress resolved to support the Arab national movement as a basic force resisting British imperialism and finally repudiated Zionism. The Hebrew source states that the 1923 resolution denouncing Zionism as "a movement of the Jewish bourgeoisie serving British imperialism" earned the party membership of the Comintern.
After negotiations in Moscow by secretary-general Auerbach, the Comintern Executive admitted the party as a section on condition that it build the closest ties with the Arab masses and turn from an organisation of European immigrant workers into "a genuine national party". The Hebrew source records that in 1924 the party was expelled from the Histadrut and became the Palestinian section of the Comintern. The party pursued "Arabisation" by publishing an Arabic weekly, Haifa, from 1924, forming Arab cells and sending Arab cadres such as Radwan al-Hilu and Najati Sidqi to the Communist University of the Toilers of the East in Moscow. The Hebrew source notes, however, that only a handful of Arabs had joined by the end of the 1920s.
The Comintern replaced the European leadership that slowed Arabisation several times, and Radwan al-Hilu became secretary-general in 1934, holding the post until 1943. In 1943, when some Jewish members urged softening the anti-Zionist line and rejoining the Histadrut, the central leadership dissolved Jewish-led branches in May and expelled some members. The Jewish section continued outside the party around Mikunis, and in September 1943 Fuad Nassar, Emile Habibi, Emile Touma and others founded the National Liberation League in Palestine in Haifa.
At the end of September 1948 the League branches left in the areas controlled by Israel merged with the Palestine Communist Party to form the Communist Party of Israel. The Arabic source states that today's Palestinian Communist Party, based in Ramallah, regards itself as the successor of this historic party and of the National Liberation League.