Summary
Secretary of the National Liberation League who, in Manna’s account, led its turn to supporting partition and a Jewish state, edited the leaflet to Arab soldiers, and coordinated with Mapam’s Aharon Cohen (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.126, 130, 132).
Details
- Nassar (1914-1976) led, with Tawfiq Tubi and Emile Habibi, the League camp that supported partition and held its convention in Nazareth (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.126).
- As League secretary he played an important role in coordination with Jewish communists and Mapam and in leading the organisation in 1948 (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.128).
- At the beginning of 1948 Nassar met Aharon Cohen in Tubi’s Haifa house, then travelled to Gaza to help set up an Arab government under communists and their friends, fled the Egyptian forces who wanted him, and continued work in the West Bank disguised as a Bedouin shaykh, keeping contact with Cohen through messengers including Midhat al-Sha’ar (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.130).
- Nassar appears responsible for editing and distributing the June 1948 leaflet ‘An Appeal to the Soldiers’ to Egyptian soldiers; he was detained in Bethlehem charged with distributing it and escaped the same night (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.132-133).
- Later League leader Na’im al-‘Ashhab criticised Nassar for overemphasising class struggle, neglecting the national aspect, and being strongly, at times recklessly, driven by an idea once convinced (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.133).
Related pages
Nakba and Survival, National Liberation League, Maki, Tawfiq Tubi, Mapam