Red Star Over Palestine: Ghassan Kanafani & Leila Khaled

Jacobin Radio

Jacobin

Socialism, History, News, Left, Jacobin, Alternative, Socialist, Politics

4.7 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 3 May 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

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Summary

For many years, Palestine had one of the strongest left-wing movements in the Arab world, represented by prominent figures such as Leila Khaled and Ghassan Kanafani. At the beginning of the First Intifada in the 1980s, Palestinian left groups were the main challengers to the hegemony of Fatah. Although the Palestinian left has lost much of its influence since the 1980s, they still play an important role today.

Red Star Over Palestine: Histories of the Palestinian Left is a six-part series from Long Reads exploring radical movements and progressive organizations of the region. The podcast examines the experience of Palestinian communism and the left-wing currents inside the PLO, the Palestine Liberation Organization. We also look at the outsized impact of the Left on Palestinian cultural life.

In our third episode, we discuss two of the most prominent figures associated with Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine: Ghassan Kanafani and Leila Khaled.

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Red Star Over Palestine is hosted by Daniel Finn and produced by Conor Gillies. Music provided by Fadi Tabbal.

Transcript

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0:00.0	its last call for Jacobin's May Day offer. This weekend, get a year of the magazine online for just $1, or $10 for the print edition.
0:09.8	Subscribers get four issues plus access to the complete archive. And most importantly,
0:13.6	you'll be providing crucial support for our work, including podcast series like this one.
0:19.0	Use the code Mayday 2025, that's one word, with Mayday in all caps, or follow the
0:24.9	link in the description.
0:26.2	And thanks.
0:30.2	You are tuned to Jacqueline.
0:32.4	Radio.
0:36.1	We're not struggling for myself. I'm not struggling only for myself. Not only for my organisation. I'm
0:43.1	struggling for all the oppressed in the world. My name's Daniel Finn. I'm the Features Editor
0:51.1	for Jacobin and I host the Longreeds podcast for Jacobin Radio.
0:56.0	This is the third episode of a series called Red Star Over Palestine,
1:01.0	Histories of the Palestinian Left.
1:04.0	In our last episode, we looked at the development of Palestinian politics after the
1:10.0	1967 war and the emergence of Palestinian politics after the 1967 war
1:11.6	and the emergence of avowedly Marxist groups like the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
1:17.6	This week, we're going to be looking in more detail
1:20.6	at two of the most prominent figures associated with the PFLP,
1:24.6	Cassan Kanafani and Leila Khaled.
1:28.3	Those in Vietnam, we are a part of them.
1:31.3	Those who are in Latin America, we are part of them.
1:35.3	Those who are in Britain itself and the imperialist government
	...

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