The Left Has Played a Key Role in the Palestinian Struggle
The rivalry between Fatah and Hamas has dominated Palestinian politics since the 1990s. Yet for many years, the main challenge to Fatah came from the groups of the Palestinian left, which have made a huge contribution to the national movement.
Georges Habash, military leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in Amman, Jordan, in 1970. (Genevieve Chauvel / Sygma via Getty Images)
The Palestinian left receives little attention in current discussions about Palestinian politics as its main factions appear marginalized, although they have historically made a huge contribution to the development of the Palestinian national movement. Today’s absence of a progressive option between two conservative nationalist parties, Fatah and Hamas, contributes to the impasse that Palestinians face in terms of political initiative.
To understand the marginalization of the Left, we have to consider not only some of the objective historical factors that undermined its political weight, like the collapse of the Soviet Union or the rise of political Islam. The inability to solve long-standing problems such as intraleftist fragmentation or the primacy of nationalism over class also represented key factors in the decline of the Palestinian left.
The PLO and the Left
At the end of the 1960s, Palestinian armed organizations had taken over the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and transformed it into the main institutional platform of the modern Palestinian national movement. Yasser Arafat’s Fatah emerged as the dominant Palestinian faction, gaining immense popularity among Palestinian refugees in exile thanks to the introduction of some key political innovations.
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