Role of the Israeli Communist Party in the Nakba

Abstract

Based on Israeli Communist Party documents, this paper discusses the role of the party in the Nakba. It focuses on the main factors that contributed to the party's support, on the eve of the 19(8 war, to the creation of a state for colonialist Zionist Jewish settlers in Palestine against the will, and at the expense, of its legitimate owners. This paper further highlights the party's involvement and activity in all intellectual, political, military, media and international fields. It notes how the party ignored the settler colonialist nature of the Zionist movement through uprooting the indigenous population and its strong ties with the colonial powers. The Israeli Communist Party disregarded Zionism's goal to expel the Palestinians from their land, thus justifying its aim to establish a Jewish state at the expense of the Palestinian people under the banner of a “struggle for national liberation and independence”. Simultaneously, the Israeli Communist Party denied the right of the Palestinian people to defend its land and stood against the national Palestinian movement describing it as “an agent for colonialism” and referring to Palestinians and Arab fighters as “mercenary bands”, “murderers”, and “servants” of colonialism.