以色列共产党于1923年在巴勒斯坦成立,起初是一个纯粹由犹太阿什肯纳兹人组成的政党。意第绪语是阿什肯纳兹犹太人的历史语言,也是他们字面意义上的"母语"(mame-loshn),同时也是许多东欧犹太人使用的语言,因此该党的意第绪语名称为:Palestinishe Komunistishe Partei(巴勒斯坦共产党)。随着"新希伯来语"日益占据主导地位,该党最终在以色列以其希伯来语名称为人所知:Ha-Miflaga Ha-Komunistit Ha-Yisraelit(以色列共产党)。然而,在英国托管时期的巴勒斯坦,其阿拉伯语名称为巴勒斯坦共产党(al-Hizb al-Shuyu'i al-Filastini)。1923年,巴勒斯坦共产党作为一个联盟诞生,成员包括左翼犹太复国主义定居者,以及来到巴勒斯坦的东欧犹太移民中的非犹太复国主义共产主义者。

The Israeli Communist Party began as an exclusively Jewish Ashkenazi party in Palestine in 1923. With Yiddish being the historical and literally the ‘mother language’ (mame-loshn) of the Ashkenazi Jews and being a language spoken by many East European Jews, the Communist Party was called in Yiddish: Palestinishe Komunistishe Partei. With the ‘new Hebrew’ being in ascendancy, the party became eventually known in Israel by its Hebrew name: Ha-Miflaga Ha-Komunistit Ha-Yisraelit. In Mandatory Palestine, however, its Arabic name was the Palestine Communist Party (al-Hizb al-Shuyu’i al-Filastini). In 1923, the PCP was born as a coalition of left-wing Zionist settlers and non-Zionist communists among the East European Jewish immigrants to Palestine.

该党在其创建之初和早期岁月里以犹太人为主，在委任统治时期的大部分时间里，它规模仍然很小，但成员绝大多数是东欧犹太人（Younis 2000: 117）。

At its foundation and in its early years the party was predominantly Jewish and it remained small but overwhelmingly composed of East European Jews during much of Mandatory Palestine (Younis 2000: 117).

在英国托管时期的大部分时间里,该党由斯大林主义者主导。1947年底,苏联支持联合国分治决议后,该党接受了以"以色列地"(Eretz Yisrael)而非"巴勒斯坦"来称呼这片土地的犹太复国主义说法,并在1948年战争最艰难的阶段协助以色列国从捷克斯洛伐克获得军事援助。31 同样在1948年,该党领导人梅厄·维尔纳签署了以色列犹太复国主义的《独立宪章》(Megilat ha-ʿAtzmaut),该宪章多次将这片土地称为以色列地(希伯来语:Eretz Yisrael)。在大灾难(Nakba)之后的时期,该党推行了一种集体记忆,这助长了以色列境内巴勒斯坦公民,即所谓"以色列阿拉伯人"的以色列化。

Dominated by Stalinists throughout much of the Mandatory period, in late 1947, following the Soviet Union’s support for the UN Partition Resolution, the party embraced a Zionist designation for the country, ‘Eretz Yisrael’ (instead of Palestine) and were instrumental in securing military assistance from Czechoslovakia for the State of Israel during the toughest stages of the 1948 war.31 Also in 1948 the leader of the party, Meir Vilner, was a signatory to the Israeli Zionist ‘Independence Charter’ (Megilat ha-ʿAtzmaut), which repeatedly described the country as the Land of Israel (Hebrew: Eretz Yisrael). In the post-Nakba period the party promoted a collective memory which contributed to the Israelification of the Palestinian citizens of Israel, the so-called ‘Israeli Arabs’.

与此同时,在英国委任统治的早期阶段,巴勒斯坦阿拉伯人组建了劳工运动,并成立了巴勒斯坦阿拉伯工人协会(Jam’iyyat al-ʿUmmal al-ʿArabiyyah al-Filastiniyyah),这是巴勒斯坦阿拉伯人的主要劳工组织。该协会成立于1925年,总部设在海法,并在拿撒勒、雅法和马季达勒阿什凯伦设有分会。1937年至1947年间,其总书记为萨米·塔哈(1916–1947)。塔哈出生于杰宁附近的小镇阿拉巴,后来家人迁至海法。他是委任统治时期巴勒斯坦阿拉伯人的主要劳工领袖(Lockman 1996: 259)。1947年9月12日,他在海法遭到暗杀。

At the same time, during this early Mandatory period, the Palestinian Arabs created a labour movement and set up the Palestine Arab Workers Society (Jam’iyyat al-ʿUmmal al-ʿArabiyyah al-Filastiniyyah), the main Palestinian Arab labour organisation, established in 1925 with headquarters in Haifa, and branches in Nazareth, Jaffa and Majdal ‘Asqalan. From 1937 to 1947 its general secretary was Sami Taha (1916–1947) – born in ‘Arrabah, a town near Jenin, his family later moved to Haifa – who was the main Palestinian Arab labour leader during the Mandatory period (Lockman 1996: 259). He was assassinated in Haifa on 12 September 1947.

在整个20世纪20年代和30年代，巴勒斯坦犹太共产主义者与巴勒斯坦阿拉伯工人协会保持着密切的关系。

Throughout the 1920s and 1930s the Palestine Jewish communists maintained close relations with the Palestine Arab Workers Society.

在1943年第二次世界大战的中期，巴勒斯坦共产党在斯大林主义苏联中东政策的压力下，与巴勒斯坦民族运动的主要目标发生冲突。该党与更为激进、反犹太复国主义的巴勒斯坦阿拉伯成员分道扬镳，后者于1944年组建了全国解放联盟。该党受到犹太复国主义左翼的影响，并认同苏联关于犹太复国主义是一种资产阶级民族主义形式的观点，于是将党名改为MAKEY，即以色列地共产党（“以色列地”之意）。该党在1947年11月支持联合国分治决议之后，采用了犹太复国主义思想中的核心术语。这是巴勒斯坦共产主义者首次使用犹太复国主义术语“以色列地”（Eretz Yisrael）。此外，MAKEY的领导人梅厄·维尔纳-科夫纳是1948年5月以色列独立宣言的签署人之一，该宣言的希伯来文本未提及“巴勒斯坦”一词，只谈及“以色列地”。该宣言开篇便重提了犹太复国主义的一些建国神话。

In the middle of the Second World War, in 1943, the Palestine Communist Party, under pressure to accommodate the Middle Eastern policies of Stalinist Russia, came into conflict with the key aims of the Palestinian national movement. The party split with the more radical anti-Zionist Palestinian Arab members, who formed the National Liberation League in 1944. Coming under Zionist left-wing influences, and endorsing the Soviet notion that Zionism was a form of bourgeois nationalism, the PCP changed its name to MAKEY, the Communist Party of Eretz Yisrael (‘the Communist Party of the Land of Israel’) – after endorsing the UN Partition Resolution of November 1947 – embracing a term central to Zionist thinking. This was the first time the Palestine communists had used the Zionist term Eretz Yisrael (‘Land of Israel’). Furthermore, the leader of MAKEY, Meir Vilner-Kovner, was one of the signatories of the Israeli Declaration of Independence of May 1948, a document whose Hebrew text does not mention the term Palestine and talks only about Eretz Yisrael. The document begins with rehashing some of the founding myths of Zionism:

【以色列之地】是犹太民族的发源地。

[The Land of Israel] was the birthplace of the Jewish people.

这里塑造了他们的精神、宗教和政治认同。

Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped.

在这里，他们首次建立了国家，创造了具有民族和普世意义的文化价值，并将永恒的典籍之书献给了世界。32

Here they first attained statehood, created cultural values of national and universal significance and gave to the world the eternal Book of Books.32

此外,关键的是,该党在1948至1949年间参与了从捷克斯洛伐克向犹太复国主义军事组织的军火运输。这些武器的交付从根本上改变了1948年巴勒斯坦战场上的军事力量对比,并对以色列国的建立起了重要作用。自1948年以来,该党的犹太成员还曾在以色列军队中服役。

Also, crucially, the party was involved in arms shipments from Czechoslovakia to the Zionist military organisations in 1948‒1949 – deliveries which radically altered the military balance on the ground in Palestine in 1948 and proved significant for the establishment of the Israeli state. Since 1948 the Jewish members of the party have also served in the Israeli army.

在1948年之后，该党陷入相互矛盾的倾向之中，开始参与以色列议会政治，并被称为MAKEY。1965年又发生一次内部分裂后，该党的主要议会派系改称Rakah，这是希伯来语“新共产主义名单”（Reshima Komunistit Hadasha）的缩写。到这一阶段，该党已成为绿线内以巴勒斯坦阿拉伯人为主的政党，并在以色列议会（Knesset）中拥有席位。从历史上看，尤其是自1948年以来，该党的政治纲领主要关注以色列境内巴勒斯坦人的平等和公民权利。如今，该党名为Hadash，这是希伯来语“Ha-Hazit Ha-Demokratit Le-Shalom”（民主和平与平等阵线）的缩写，阿拉伯语名称为al-Jabhah ad-Dimuqratiyyah lis-Salam wal-Musawah，其政治纲领主张两国方案。

Bedevilled by contradictory tendencies, after 1948 the party took part in Israeli parliamentary politics and became known as MAKEY. After another internal split in 1965, the main parliamentary faction became known as Rakah, an acronym for the New Communist List (Hebrew: Reshima Komunistit Hadasha). By this stage the party was a predominantly Palestinian Arab party within the Green Line with representation in the Israeli Knesset (parliament). Historically, and in particular since 1948, the party’s political platform largely focused on equality and civil rights for the Palestinians within Israel. Today the party is known as Hadash, a Hebrew acronym for Ha-Hazit Ha-Demokratit Le-Shalom (Democratic Front for Peace and Equality; Arabic: al-Jabhah ad-Dimuqratiyyah lis-Salam wal-Musawah), with a political platform committed to the two-state solution.