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Fatah (Arabic: الفتح) al-fatah—an reverse acronym from arabic words Harakat alTahrir alwatani alFilastini (literally: "the movement for liberation of the Palestinian homeland")—is a Palestinian faction founded in 1959 by Yasser Arafat who, until his death, was head of the Palestinian Authority. Fatah was committed to destruction of Israel as part of a world wide Islamic Brotherhood movement started in Egypt (Arafat's home country). In 1967–1968, Fatah joined the PLO and won the leadership role in 1969. Fatah's commanders were expelled to Lebanon from Jordan following violent confrontations with Jordanian forces during the period 1970–1971, beginning with Black September in 1970. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas is the current Fatah chairman, elected to the post soon after Arafat's death in 2004.

In the 1960s and the 1970s, Fatah provided training to a wide range of European, Middle Eastern, Asian, and African militant and insurgent groups, and carried out numerous acts of international terrorism, such as hijacking of civilian planes and political assassinations, in Western Europe and the Middle East during the 1970s. Fatah also engaged in guerrilla warfare against the Israeli security forces and carried out terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians. When Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, the faction was dispersed to several Middle Eastern countries with the help of US and other Western governments: Tunisia, Yemen, Algeria, Iraq and others. Arafat himself signed the Declaration of Principles with Israel in 1993 and renounced terrorism and violence, and was allowed to return to the Palestinian territories from exile in Tunisia, however, the group has subsequently been linked to continuing attacks against Israeli and foreign civilians within Israel and the occupied territories, and to guerrilla warfare against Israeli occupation soldiers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and against the security forces inside Israel. Fatah maintains several armed groups, called wings, that have carried out operations, including Force 17, the Hawari Special Operations Group, Tanzim and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.

Fatah received weapons, explosives, and training from the former USSR and the former Communist regimes of East European states. China and North Korea have reportedly provided some weapons.

Fatah has "Observer Party" status at the Socialist International.

Fatah operates under the official PLO charter which still calls not only for the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip, but the complete eradication of Israeli existance. [1] (http://www.fateh.net/e_public/constitution.htm)

Most recently, Fatah has endorsed Mahmoud Abbas in the Palestinian presidential election, 2005.

Fatah armed factions

• Black September (operated mainly in the 1970s)
• Force 17 (Yasser Arafat's guard)
• Hawari Special Operations Group
• Tanzim
• Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades
• Abu Reish Brigades
• Fatah Hawks

See Also

• Mahmoud Abbas
• Farouk Kaddoumi
• Ahmed Qurei

• Israeli-Palestinian conflict
• PLO
• Terrorism

External links

Official

• Fateh Organization (http://www.fateh.net/)

Information

• Pike, John, "Al-fatah (http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/al-fatah.htm)". Federation of American Scientists, Washington, DC.
• IDF, The PA Financed Fatah Activities with Money Taken from its Official Budget (http://www.idf.il/Fatah/english/main_index.stm)

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