Najati Sidqi

Najati Sidqi was born in Jerusalem to an intellectual family and was sent by the Palestinian Communist Party in 1925 to study at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East (KUTV) in Moscow, where he met prominent Soviet intellectuals. Returning to Palestine, he organized Arab trade unions and led anti-colonial demonstrations against the British Mandate.

In 1936, the Comintern sent Sidqi to Spain to produce anti-fascist propaganda aimed at Moroccan troops serving in Francisco Franco's army. In 1940, he published his visionary treatise The Principles of Islamic Socialism and Nazism and Islam, demonstrating that fascism was fundamentally incompatible with Islamic ethics. He also pioneered the modern Palestinian short story.