Fu'ad Nassar

Fu'ad Nassar (Arabic: فؤاد نصار, 1914-1976), was a Palestinian communist leader. Nassar became associated with the anti-colonial struggle in 1929. He joined the Palestinian Communist Party and was in charge of the military activities of the party during the 1936-1939 insurgency. Led the Nazareth branch of the Palestinian Arab Workers Society.[1][2]

Fu'ad Nassar
Poster of the Palestinian People's Party commemorating the 20th death anniversary of Fu'ad Nassar
General Secretary of the National Liberation League
In office
1943–1951
General Secretary of the Jordanian Communist Party
In office
1951–1956
Personal details
Born1914
Nazareth, Ottoman Empire
Died1976
NationalityPalestinian
Political partyPalestine Communist Party, National Liberation League, Jordanian Communist Party

Nassar was imprisoned in Iraq. He returned to Palestine in 1943. With the Palestine Communist Party in crumbles, he and other younger Arab communist leaders took the initiative to form the National Liberation League.[1] He and Emile Touma were the co-chair of the Communist Party based in Haifa.[3] Nassar became the General Secretary of the League. In 1944 the Nazareth branch of the Palestinian Arab Workers Society broke away from the mother organization.[4] In the same year, he helped establish the Arab language newspaper Al-Ittihad.

When remaining West Bank elements of the League merged into the Jordanian Communist Party in 1951, Nassar became general secretary in the Jordanian party. He was arrested on 29 December 1951 and sentenced to ten year imprisonment. He was released by the Nabulsi government in 1956, but he had to leave Jordan soon thereafter as King Hussein stepped up repression against communists forces.[5]

With Nassar in exile, a power struggle emerged within the party. The acting general secretary inside Jordan, Fatim as-Salifi, was more prone towards seeking reconciliation with the government. Whilst the sector loyal to as-Salfiti party promoted non-military struggles against Israel, Nassar argued that communists should actively take part in the liberation struggle. Moreover, he opposed United Nations Security Council Resolution 242. He formed the Ansar Forces, a Palestinian communist militia 1970, under joint command of the Jordanian, Syrian and Iraqi parties.[6] The Ansar Forces lasted for three years, and in practice received little assistance from the Jordanian Communist Party.[5]

In January 1973, Nassar was the first communist to be adopted into the Palestinian National Council.[5] Nassar died in 1976.[2]

References
  1. Beinin, Joel. The Palestine Communist Party 1919 - 1948, in MERIP Reports, No. 55. (Mar., 1977), pp. 3-17.
  2. Biographies of Palestinian political leaders since 1967 Archived 2008-10-25 at the Wayback Machine
  3. Ebon, Martin (1948). "Communist Tactics in Palestine". The Middle East Journal. 2 (3): 257. JSTOR 4321987.
  4. Comrades and Enemies "s1.7.72"
  5. Palestinian Political Parties and Organizations mideastweb.org
  6. "Report". Archived from the original on 10 March 2007. Retrieved 26 May 2007.
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