Palestine Pal

After the demonstration in Abud, we were invited to go back to the local branch of the Palestinian Youth Union (PYU). I walked into their organisers office, there was a big Che Guevara painted on the wall and Palestinian Peoples Party (PPP) posters everywhere.

Ramez Fawadleh the PYU organiser and I had a long discussion. He showed me photographs of his work in the PYU, most of it seems to be artistic workshops, volunteer work in the community and throwing community Christmas parties. Occasionally the PYU will organise a political action such as a long march between Jenin and Jerusalem that occurred a few years ago but most of their work wasn't of a political nature. The PYU like many of the previous "fronts" like PARC and a Medical NGO etc. had to be divorced from the party in order for them to continue to receive funding.

This has caused problems for the PPP. With most cadre identifying more with the organisations then the party. According to Fawadleh there is no ideological or political education in the PPP and that the only people who have had political education are long there party members. Occasionally they share this political experience but most of their younger members just aren't educated in socialist ideas. As a result Fawadleh thinks that possibly 50% of the Party don't actually identify as communist. With the Hamas victory Fawadleh admits that there is a "problem trying to confront Islam ideology." I have just received the contact details for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) a split from the PFLP. I hope to meet with both organisations shortly to get more of a sense of the other left forces in Palestine.