Egyptian communist voices of peace (1947–1958)

ABSTRACT

This article sets out to closely scrutinise the main phases of the campaign for peace (1947–58) undertaken by left-wing Egyptian groups. Based on exclusive first-hand Egyptian communist primary sources – archival and others, it shows that although the communists were the only Egyptian political groups to support the November 1947 UN partition resolution on Palestine, President Gamal Abdel Nasser later, during the Bandung Conference (1955), followed suit yet no concrete official actions were taken by neither the Egyptian nor the Israeli political elites before the 1956 Suez War. Following that war, the prospects for an Egyptian–Israeli peace settlement were shut off for nearly two decades.

KEYWORDS:

• Egypt
• Gamal Abdel Nasser
• communists
• peace
• Israel
• Arab-Israeli peace
• Suez War

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. See for instance, Haykal, al-Mufawadat al-Sirriyah, Vol. 1; Caplan, Futile Diplomacy; Rabinovich, The Road Not Taken; Podeh, Chances for Peace; Shlaim, The Iron Wall.

2. Amitay, Mitsrayim Ve-Israel; Beinin, Was the Red Flag; Idem, The Dispersion.

3. Mursi, Al-Alaqat al-Misriyya al-Sufyatiyya, 261–2.

4. On Nehru’s Stand on this issue, see Ginat, Syria and the Doctrine, 97–8, 116.

5. To name a few: Joseph Rosenthal, Avigdor (Yehiel Kossoy), Sholom Polak, Charlotte Rosenthal (Jews); Sakellaris Yanakakis, Thodosis Pierrides, Lambis Rappas, Yani Critieos (Greek); Husni al-Urabi, Rafiq Jabbur, Mahmud Ibrahim, al-Samkari, Hasan Kuttub (Egyptian Muslims); James Crossley, Allen Whittleton (British); Paul Jacot Descombes (Swiss); Renato Farfara, Dina Forte (Italian); Anna Kayenko (Russian); Zenon Caramenian (Armenian); Yusuf Darwish, Marcel Israel, Henri Curiel, Hillel Schwartz, Yusuf (Jews); al-Mudarrik, Taha Sa’d uthman (Egyptian Muslims).

6. Ginat, A History of Egyptian Communism, 329–30.

7. Ibid, 130.

8. Ginat, Syria and the Doctrine, 25–6.

9. See Mursi, Al-'alaqat al-Misriyya al-Sufyatiyya, 258–9; ‘The Egyptian communists and the Jewish problem’, 1949, File 317, Egyptian Communists in Exile (Rome Group) Archives (hereafter ECIE), International Institute of Social History (hereafter IISH). On the Egyptian communists’ attitude towards Palestine, see in detail Ginat, A History of Egyptian Communism, pp. 330–46.

10. Al-Jindi, Masirat Hayyati, vol. 3, 63.

11. Zaharan, Fi Usul al-Siyasa, 139.

12. Ginat, A History of Egyptian Communism, 345–6; Curiel, Min AjilSalam, 24.

13. ‘The Egyptian Communists and the Jewish Problem’, 1949, File 317, ECIE, IISH.

14. Amitay, p. 93

15. Shirazi, Awraq Munadil Itali, 139.

16. Founded in 1942–1943 by Hillel Schwartz and merged with Curiel’s Egyptian Movement for National Liberation (EMNL) in 1947 to form DMNL (Hadetu).

17. Amitay, Mitsrayim Ve-Israel, 129–30

18. See a draft programme for the Egyptian Communist Party, undated, File 27, ECIE, IISH.

19. On the initial stages of the movement, see a vivid account by Mary Rosenthal-Kamil, a member of the movement and wife of Sa‘d Kamil, one of its leaders, in Kamil, al-Mawluda, 130–41.

20. Ginat and Alon, “En Route to Revolution”,593

21. Ginat, “The Egyptian Left”, 18.

22. An internal document of DMNL, 20 May 1953, File 336, ECIE, IISH.

23. Ginat and Alon, 593–4.

24. On the SSP, see Ginat, Syria and the Doctrine, 72–81.

25. Kamil, al-Mawluda, 137–8; Ginat, A History of Egyptian Communism, 347;

26. See note 14 above, p. 152.

27. ‘Mawqif Majallat al-Katib min Harakat Ansar al-Salam’, 1951, File 80, Collection of Tali‘at al-‘ummal (hereafter: T\U), IISH.

28. Letter from Majm‘uat Ruma (Lajnat Hadetu) to the Communist Party of Israel, July 1954, file 143, ECIE, IISH. See also Ginat, A History of Egyptian Communism, 347–8. Beinin, The Dispersion, 5. Hatata, ‘Henri Curiel’, in: Al-Haraka al-Shuyu’iyya, 41–62.

29. Letter from the Rome Group to DMNL, May 1951, File 85, ECIE, IISH.

30. Report by the Rome Group to DMNL, 7 October 1951, File 14, ECIE, IISH.

31. Report on comrade Gamal’s recent travel, February–May 1952, File 17, ECIE, IISH.

32. Ginat, The Soviet Union,129.

33. Ibid, 128–9.

34. Pamphlet by Nahwa Hizb Shuyu‘iy, 1950, File 113, ECIE, IISH.

35. Internal document, 20 May 1953, File 336, ECIE, IISH.

36. See Report submitted by Curiel, Paris, to the DMNL, Cairo, 1953, ‘mudhakkira hawla al-‘alaqat baina isra’il wa-al-bilad al-‘arabiyya,’ in Curiel, Min Ajil Salam, 29–32; see also: Internal document, 20 May 1953, File 336, ECE, IISH.

37. Internal document, ‘Hawla al-Mawqif al-Siyasi wa-Wajibatuna’, November 1952, File 115, ECIE, IISH.

38. Curiel, Min Ajil Salam, pp. 33–5.

39. Ibid, 36–39.

40. Letter from Hadetu, July 1954, File 143, ECIE, IISH.

41. al-Barnamaj al-Siyasi li-Munazamat Tali‘at al-‘ummal’, June 1954, File 4, T\U, IISH.

42. Ginat, Syria and the Doctrine, 111

43. Report entitled ‘The Government of Military Dictatorship in Egypt does not Represent the Egyptian People’, April 1955, File 244, ECIE, IISH. See also Fawzi-Rossano, Rasa’il, 139.

44. Letter from the Egyptian National Democratic Front to the Conference of African and Asian countries, Bandung, 18 April 1955, File 244, ECIE, IISH. The front was comprised of communists and other opposition groups.

45. Letter from Yusuf Hilmi to the organisers of the Afro-Asian conference in New Delhi, March 1955, File 243, IISH, ECIE.

46. Fawzi-Rossano, Rasa’il, 139.

47. Beinin, The Dispersion, 161.

48. See Yusuf Hilmi’s speech in the World Assembly for Peace, 22–29 June 1955, in File 183, ECIE, IISH.

49. Ibid.

50. Ibid.

51. Letter from Yusuf Hilmi to Nasir, 20 November 1955, File 407, ECIE, IISH. See also Ginat, A History of Egyptian, 348.

52. Letter from Yusuf Hilmi to the Israeli people, 20 November 1955, File 407, ECIE, IISH. See also Ginat, ibid.

53. Letter from Samya Rashid to Nasir, 10 April 1956, File 185, ECIE, IISH.

54. ‘Qararat al-Lajna al-Markaziyya li-Tali‘at al-‘ummal’, May 1955, File 5, T\U; ‘Khitab Maftuh ila Ra’is al-Wuzara’’, November 1955, File 38, T\U, IISH.

55. A reunification of several groups (February 1955) – originally these groups split from DMNL.

56. Internal document, 20 May 1956, File 107, ECIE, IISH.

57. Letter to the Israeli Communist Party, File 107, ECIE, IISH. See also al-Jindi, Masirat Hayyati, 124.

58. Letter to Léon [Muhammad Yusuf al-Jindi, an exiled activist of DMNL], Budapest, 18 September 1956, File 121, ECIE, IISH. On al-Jindi’s activities in Budapest and Paris, see his account in al-Jindi Masirat Hayyati, 89–125. Support for Nasser’s anti-Western policies were expressed by communists representing other groups. See for instance, al-Shafi‘i, Tatawwur al-Haraka, 149–68.

59. Letter to Bayram [pseudonym of Faruq Thabit], Central Committee of the Egyptian United Communist Party, 2 September 1956, File 121, ECIE, IISH.

60. Letter from Khalil [pseudonym of Kamal ‘Abd al-Halim] to the Rome Group, 7 September 1956, File 35, ECIE, IISH.

61. Perrault, A Man Apart, p. 271; Al-Jindi, Masirat Hayyati, 132; Beinin, The Dispersion,156–9.

62. ‘Hawla Mushkilat al-‘alaqat al-‘arabiyya al-Isra’iliyya’, a letter from Majmu‘at Ruma to Hadetu, no date, File 338, ECIE, IISH.

63. Ibid.

64. Ibid.

65. Ibid.

Additional information

Funding

Research for this article was supported by the Israel Science Foundation (ISF), grant numbers [1001/12 and 977/18].

Notes on contributors

Rami Ginat

Rami Ginat is Professor and former head of the Department of Political Studies, Bar-Ilan University, Israel.