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Fatah (Arabic: الفتح) al-fatah—a reverse acronym from the arabic 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, the name of the
PLO during the Oslo Process. In 1967–1968,
Fatah joined the PLO and won the leadership
role in 1969. Thereafter, Fatah has been the largest constituency of the PLO, a multi-party
confederation. 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. Then after the
Israeli expulsion of Palestinians from Lebanon, Fatah's leadership resided in Tunis. Farouk Kaddoumi 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
existence. [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
External links
Official
Information
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