The National Liberation League in Palestine ( ar, عصبة التحرر الوطني في فلسطين, ''ʿuṣbat at-taḥrīr al-waṭaniyy fi filasṭīn'') was a political party in

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

, founded in early 1944 by Arab members of the

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

(which had experienced a split between Jewish and Arab members the previous year), Bulus Farah and his followers, and other trade unionists and left wing intellectuals.

History

The founders included

Haidar Abdel-Shafi Haidar Abdel-Shafi (Heidar Abdul-Shafi) ( ar, حيدر عبد الشافي June 10, 1919 – September 25, 2007), was a Palestinian physician, community leader and political leader who was the head of the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid C ...

, Mukhlis Amer,

Emil Habibi Emile Shukri Habibi ( ar, إميل حبيبي, he, אמיל חביבי, 28 January 1922 – 2 May 1996) was a Palestinian-Israeli

, Mufid Nashashibi and Emile Toma. It published the ''

al-Ittihad Al-Ittihad (Arabic: الاتحاد "The Union"), sometimes transliterated as Al-Etihad or Al-Ettihad may refer to: Sports Football Libya *Al-Ittihad Club (Tripoli), a football club based in Bab Ben Gashier * Al Ittihad Gheryan, a football club bas ...

'' newspaper in

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

, a journal which still exists. It was the only Arab Palestinian party to support the 1947

UN Partition Plan The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was a proposal by the United Nations, which recommended a partition of Mandatory Palestine at the end of the British Mandate. On 29 November 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted the Plan as R ...

, in line with the official position of 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 national ...

. In October 1948, after the formation of the

State of Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, the NLL merged with

Maki Maki may refer to: People *Mäki, a Finnish surname (includes a list of people with the name) *Maki (name), a Japanese given name and surname (includes a list of people with the name) Places *Maki, Ravar, Kerman Province, Iran *Maki, Rigan, Ke ...

. Since both Arab and Jewish Communists still hoped to establish two states on the terms of the UN Partition Plan, it was decided that the Maki and NLL party organizations would merge in the areas that the UN had laid out for a Jewish state, while the NLL would continue to exist as an independent party in areas of Israel that were to have been part of an Arab state under the UN plan. Beinin, Joel. ''Was the Red Flag Flying There?: Marxist Politics and the Arab-Israeli Conflict in Egypt and Israel, 1948-1965''.

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

: University of California Press, 1990. pp. 51-52. NLL leaders were added to an expanded Maki Central Committee. In practice, the NLL quickly ceased to exist within Israel except in name, and in April 1949 ''al-Ittihad'' and its Hebrew sister paper, ''

Kol HaAm ''Kol HaAm'' ( he, קול העם, lit. "Voice of the People") was a Hebrew-language newspaper in Mandatory Palestine and Israel. It was initially published by the Palestine Communist Party and later by its successor, the Israeli Communist Party. ...

'', quietly dropped all references to the NLL. Beinin, Joel. ''Was the Red Flag Flying There?: Marxist Politics and the Arab-Israeli Conflict in Egypt and Israel, 1948-1965''.

: University of California Press, 1990. pp. 124-25. On July 20, 1949, Egypt destroyed the remnant of the NLL existing in Gaza, arresting 33 people. In 1951, its members 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 ...

joined the

Communist Party of Jordan The Jordanian Communist Party (JCP; ar, الحزب الشیوعی الاردنی, ''al-Hizb al-Shuyu'i al-Urduni'') is a communist party in Jordan, founded in 1948. Its current general secretary is Dr. Munir Hamarana. It publishes ''al-Jamahir ...

References

Political parties established in 1944 History of Mandatory Palestine Communist parties in Mandatory Palestine 1944 establishments in Mandatory Palestine {{Palestine-party-stub