Fu'ad Nassar

{{Short description|Communist leader in Palestine}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2023}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Fu'ad Nassar

| native_name = فؤاد نصار

| native_name_lang = ar

| image = Fuad nasser poster.jpg

| caption = Poster of the Palestinian People's Party commemorating the 20th death anniversary of Fu'ad Nassar

| office = General Secretary of the National Liberation League

| term_start = 1943

| term_end = 1951

| predecessor =

| successor =

| office1 = General Secretary of the Jordanian Communist Party

| term_start1 = 1951

| term_end1 = 1956

| predecessor1 =

| successor1 =

| birth_date = 1914

| birth_place = Nazareth, Ottoman Empire

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1976|9|30|1914|11|28}}

| death_place =

| nationality = Palestinian

| party = Palestine Communist Party, National Liberation League, Jordanian Communist Party

| allegiance = Ansar Forces

}}

Fu'ad Nassar ({{langx|ar|فؤاد نصار}}; 28 November 1914 – 30 September 1976),{{Cite web |title=Fouad Nassar - Revolutionaries and Activists (1914 - 1976) |url=https://www.palquest.org/en/biography/33398/fouad-nassar |access-date=2025-02-09 |website=Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question – palquest |language=en}} 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. He led the Nazareth branch of the Palestinian Arab Workers Society.{{cite journal |author-link=Joel Beinin |author=Beinin, Joel |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3010830 |title=The Palestine Communist Party 1919 - 1948 |journal=MERIP Reports |issue=55 |date=March 1977 |pages= 3-17 |doi=10.2307/3010830|url-access=subscription }}{{cite web |url=http://middleeastreference.org.uk/palbiograph.html#FuadNassar |title=Biographies of Palestinian political leaders since 1967 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081025115806/http://middleeastreference.org.uk/palbiograph.html |archive-date=2008-10-25 |website=Middle East Reference}}

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. He and Emile Touma were the co-chair of the Communist Party based in Haifa.{{cite journal|last=Ebon|first=Martin|title=Communist Tactics in Palestine| journal=The Middle East Journal|volume=2|issue=3|year=1948|jstor=4321987|page=257|author-link=Martin Ebon}} 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.{{cite book |chapter-url=http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft6b69p0hf&doc.view=content&chunk.id=s1.7.72&toc.depth=1&anchor.id=0&brand=eschol |title=Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906–1948 |chapter=Worker Activism and the Arab Labor Movement |first=Zachary |last=Lockman |date=1966 |publisher=University of California Press}} 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 a 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.mideastweb.org/palestianparties.htm |title=Palestinian Political Parties and Organizations |website=mideastweb.org |access-date=16 June 2024}}

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.{{cite web|url=http://www.al-watan.com/data/20060515/index.asp?content=report |script-title=ar:الفلسطينيون في سوريا.. التكوينات السياسية والعمل الوطني |access-date=2007-05-26 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070310184357/http://www.al-watan.com/data/20060515/index.asp?content=report |archive-date=2007-03-10 |website=Al-Watan |date=15 May 2006 |language=ar |trans-title=Palestinians in Syria: Political Formations and National Work}} The Ansar Forces lasted for three years, and in practice received little assistance from the Jordanian Communist Party.

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