Palestine and Russia

Abstract

The Soviet Union was one of the main and early supporters of establishing Israel in 1948; however, Moscow moved gradually to support the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) after 1967. The bilateral relation had been developed informally, with diversified implementation for paradiplomacy. The PLO-Soviet paradiplomacy reflected the special Palestinian politics which relied more on the cultural, popular and military Soviet support. The bilateral paradiplomacy supported moving from informal ties to formal diplomatic relations; the Palestinian issue escalated on the Soviet foreign policy in the Middle East to be one of the top priorities. The downfall of the Soviet Union and the peace process infected the Palestinian-Russian paradiplomacy negatively, but it witnessed significant developments since 2002 on political, economic and cultural tracks.