[1] Following the Second World War, the Soviet Union continued its support of national liberation movements, now moving into the Middle East.

Both the Soviet Union and communist parties in the Middle East were against a partition of Palestine, instead wanting a unified Arab-Jewish state.

This attitude was reversed in 1947 when the Soviet Union decided to recognize the Jewish right to their own state, and voted in favor of a partition of the land.

On May 15, 1958, a joint Soviet-UAR press release said that:[1]The two governments examined the question of the rights of Palestinian Arabs and of their expulsion from their homes.

Several moves by the Soviet Union and Eastern Blocresulted in a series of murders and arrests, making Israel's position increasingly pro-western and anti-communist.

[1] Soviet relations began to improve with Palestine following the Six-Day War of 1967, with the increasing political importance of Palestinian resistance.

This won the praise of both the US State Department and the Israeli government, saying that the Soviets helped “to prevent this new entity from joining the UN or the World Health Organization in 1989.”[1] In September 1990, a PLO executive member, Abdullah Hourani, expressed concerns that the Soviet Union was attempting to "please the Zionist government and obtain American money."

The Soviet Union's stanch anti-imperialist stance also served to frame the Palestinian struggle in terms of global resistance against colonialism and occupation.