Radwan Al Hilu

Radwan Al Hilu
General Secretary of Palestine Communist Party
In office
1934–1943
Personal details
Born1909
Jaffa, Ottoman Palestine
Died1975 (aged 65–66)
Jericho, State of Palestine

Radwan Al Hilu (1909–1975) was a Palestinian Arab politician who was the leader of the Palestine Communist Party between 1934 and 1943. He was the first Arab to hold the post[1] and used the pseudonym Musa.[2]

Biography

Al Hilu was born in Jaffa, Ottoman Palestine, in 1909,[1] into a poor working-class Christian Orthodox family.[3] He was a member of the Palestine Communist Party being part of the mainstream faction.[4] He and Bulus Farah were sent to Moscow for leadership training at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East.[2][3]

In 1934, Al Hilu was appointed by the Comintern as the secretary general of the party.[5] His appointment was a result of the Comintern's efforts of the Arabization in the party of which most members were Jewish.[6] He held the post until November 1943 when he resigned from the party due to internal conflicts.[1][7]

Al Hilu had an affair with Simha Tzabari who was also a member of the Palestinian Communist Party.[3]

Al Hilu died in Jericho in 1975.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d "⁨Nidal al-Sha'b". National Library of Israel. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  2. ^ a b Nir Arielli (October 2011). "Induced to Volunteer? The Predicament of Jewish Communists in Palestine and the Spanish Civil War". Journal of Contemporary History. 46 (4): 863. doi:10.1177/0022009411413406. JSTOR 41305362. S2CID 153545063.
  3. ^ a b c Marev Mack (2015). "Orthodox and Communist: A History of a Christian Community in Mandate Palestine and Israel". British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. 42 (4): 394–395. doi:10.1080/13530194.2014.1002386. S2CID 153785634.
  4. ^ Ran Greenstein (Summer 2011). "A Palestinian Revolutionary: Jabra Nicola and the Radical Left". Jerusalem Quarterly (46): 36.
  5. ^ Musa Budeiri (14 August 2020). "Essential Readings on the Left in Mandate Palestine". Jadaliyya. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  6. ^ Ran Greenstein (Spring 2009). "Class, Nation, and Political Organization: The Anti-Zionist Left in Israel/Palestine". International Labor and Working-Class History. 75 (1): 91. doi:10.1017/S0147547909000076. JSTOR 27673143. S2CID 144848023.
  7. ^ Johan Franzéén (2007). "Communism versus Zionism: The Comintern, Yishuvism, and the Palestine Communist Party" (PDF). Journal of Palestine Studies. 36 (2): 18. doi:10.1525/jps.2007.36.2.6.