Information AboutFatah |
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Fatah (Arabic: فتح); a reverse political party and the largest organization in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), a multi-party Confederation . In Palestinian politics it is on the center-left of the spectrum. It is mainly secular and nationalist although not predominantly socialist. In the January 25 , 2006 Parliamentary Election , the party lost its majority in the Palestinian parliament to Hamas , and resigned all cabinet positions, choosing to act as the official Opposition , though it will remain as Interim government until a new cabinet is formed. MEANING OF NAME "Fatah" means "conquest" or literally "opening", in the in the 700s, and so has strongly positive connotations for Muslim s. s and a Hand Grenade superimposed on a map of historic Palestine (i.e. the post-1922 British Mandate borders, including present-day Israel , the West Bank and the Gaza Strip )]] HISTORY The movement, which espoused a Palestinian Nationalist Ideology in which Palestine would be liberated by the actions of Palestinians, was founded in 1958 or 1959 by members of the Palestinian diaspora - principally professionals working in the Gulf States who had been refugees in Gaza and had gone on to study in Cairo . The most notable of these was Yasser Arafat , who was head of the Palestinian student movement in Cairo from 1952 to 1956. Fatah became the dominant force in Palestinian politics after the 1967 Six-Day War dealt the Coup De Grâce to the Arab nationalism that had inspired George Habash 's Arab Nationalist Movement . The November 1959 edition of Fatah's underground journal, ''Filastinuna'', indicated that the movement was motivated by the status of the Palestinian refugees in the Arab world:
From the beginning the armed struggle, as manifested in the Great Uprising of 1936-1939 and the military role of Palestinian fighters under the leadership of Abd Al-Qadir Al-Husayni in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War , was central to Fatah's ideology. Fatah joined the PLO and won the Leadership role in 1969, after which the other consitutent members the Popular Front For The Liberation Of Palestine and the Democratic Front For The Liberation Of Palestine were marginalized. According to the BBC , "Mr Arafat took over as chairman of the executive committee of the PLO in 1969, a year that Fatah is recorded to have carried out 2,432 Guerrilla attacks on Israel." ( {Link without Title} ). Fatah's first ever guerilla attack came on January 3 , 1965, when they attempted to sabotage the Israeli National Water Carrier , which had recently started operation. The attack was thwarted by the Israeli Security Forces . 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. In the 1960s and the 1970s, Fatah provided training to a wide range of Europe an, Middle East ern, Asia n, and Africa n militant and insurgent groups, and carried out numerous attacks against Israeli targets in Western Europe and the Middle East during the 1970s. Some militant groups that affiliated themselves to Fatah, and some of the ''fedayeen'' within Fatah itself, carried out civilian plane Hijacking s and Terrorist attacks, attributing them to Black September , Abu Nidal 's Fatah-Revolutionary Council , Abu Musa 's group, the PFLP , and the PFLP-GC . Fatah received weapons, explosives and training from the former USSR and the former Communist regimes of East Europe an states. China has also provided some weapons. When Israel invaded , Yemen , Algeria , Iraq and others. In the period 1982-1993, Fatah's leadership resided in Tunisia . Until his death, Arafat was the head of the Palestinian Authority . Farouk Kaddoumi is the current Fatah chairman, elected to the post soon after Arafat's death in 2004. Fatah has "Observer Party" status at the Socialist International . Fatah endorsed Mahmoud Abbas in the Palestinian Presidential Election Of 2005 . In 2005, Hamas won landslide victories in nearly all the municipalities it Contested . Fatah is "widely seen as being in desperate need of reform", as "the PA's performance has been a story of corruption and incompetence - and Fatah has been tainted." Political analyst Sallah Abdelshafi told BBC about the difficulties of Fatah leadership: "I think it's very, very serious - it's becoming obvious that they can't agree on anything." {Link without Title} On , 2005 , the leadership of the two factions agreed to submit a single list to voters, headed by Barghouti, who began actively campaigning for Fatah from his jail cell. Reactions to the news have been split. Some have suggested that the move could be a positive step towards peace, as Barghouti's new party could help reform major problems in Palestinian government. Others have raised concern that it could wind up splitting the Fatah vote, inadvertently helping Hamas. Barghouti's supporters argue that al-Mustaqbal will split the votes of both parties, both from disenchanted Fatah members as well as moderate Hamas voters who do not agree with Hamas' political goals, but rather its social work and hard position on corruption. Some observors have also hypothesized that the formation of Mustaqbal is mostly a negotiating tactic to get members of the young guard into higher positions of power within Fatah and its electoral list. A variant theory, highly plausible, is that after the elections, Mustaqbal will either be partially re-incorporated into Fatah, or will function as part of a Parliamentary coalition with it in opposition to Hamas and other political rivals. {Link without Title} Some editorialists have drawn a parallel between Barghouti's split from Fatah and the upheaval in Israeli party politics resulting from Ariel Sharon 's leaving the Likud to form Kadima . {Link without Title} {Link without Title} PARTICIPATION IN THE PEACE PROCESS AND CONTROVERSIES Yasser Arafat signed the , "The Palestinian National Charter... amended by canceling the articles that are contrary to the letters exchanged between the P.L.O. and the Government of Israel 9- 10 September 1993 ." [http://www.state.gov/p/nea/rls/22573.htm The group has been accused of continuing attacks against Israeli civilians, and of supporting Guerrilla Warfare against Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and against the security forces inside Israel as a part of the Al-Aqsa Intifada , started in 2000 after the failure of the Camp David 2000 Summit . Those who hold that some forces within the leadership of Fatah still have a goal to destroy Israel, find the evidence in quotes such as Farouk Kaddoumi 's November, 2004 interview to Iran's Al-Aram TV station ( [http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/breaking_9.html ): :- ''Kaddoumi:'' are 300 Million Arabs, while Israel has only the sea behind it. :- ''Interviewer:'' Minister, how do you see the future of Palestine? :- ''Kaddoumi:'' At this stage there will be two states. Many years from now there will be only one. FATAH ARMED FACTIONS
While Quwwat Al-Sa'eqa are the official armed body of Fatah movement, many of the other factions have never been officially recognized by Fatah's major leading bodies: The Revolutionary Council and The Central Committee. At many instances, some of those factions were considered rebellious and outlawed by the Fatah official bodies, especially the Black September group. SEE ALSO
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EXTERNAL LINKS Websites by Fatah Offices |
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