short. In January 1957, Hussein of Jordan harshly attacked the party and the communists were accused of collaborating with Israel. Ziyadin and Warrad were arrested by the government after having their parliamentary immunities removed. They were sentenced to 19 and 16 years' imprisonment respectively. The party activities nearly halted, except for internal cadre schooling and publication of al-Muqawamah ash-Shabiya. In the mid 1960s, the United States Department of State estimated the party membership to be approximately 500. At the same time, the party suffered from internal divisions. The acting General Secretary in Amman, Fahmi al-Salfiti led the right wing sections of the party. He favored collaboration with the Hashemite dynasty. He vehemently opposed guerrilla struggle and expressed a will that King Hussein would take the leading role in the struggle against Israel. The al-Salfiti fraction supported Resolution 242 of the United Nations Security Council. Al-Salfiti was opposed by the exiled leadership, led by the party general secretary Fu'ad Nassar. After the Six-Day War (5–10 June 1967), the party organization in the West Bank was led by Na'im al-Ashhab, Sulayman al-Najjab, 'Arabi 'Awwad and later, Bashir Barghuti. In the West Bank, the party started publishing al-Watan (, "The Fatherland"). Under al-Ashhab's rule, the West Bank communists remained cautious of armed struggle, claiming that it was premature under existing conditions. However the changed political scenario in the West Bank would force the local activists to review their stands. The pro-Jordanian positions of the party and its ambiguity towards the armed struggle were becoming more and more problematic. The West Bank communists moved closer to the Palestinian liberation movement. By 1973, the West Bank communists supported the formation of an independent Palestinian state of the West Bank and Gaza. These developments strained the relations between the West Bank communists and their formal leadership in Amman. In exile, Fu'ad Nassar built up an armed militia for the Palestinian communists, the al-Ansar Forces, in March 1970. In theory the al-Ansar Forces would remain under the supervision of the JCP, the Syrian Communist Party and the Iraqi Communist Party. In practice, the group would not play a major role, largely due to the passivity and betrayal of the JCP. By 1975, the structure was disbanded. In 1975, the West Bank communists split in two separate organizations. The pro-Salfiti branch formed the Palestinian Communist Youth Organization. The group which remained in JCP was reorganized as the "Palestinian