Middle East Information Resource
Political Entities - Fatah
Fatah (victory) was founded in the late 1950`s, and has been the largest and dominant group in the PLO since 1969. Its delegates do not have a majority in the PLO Executive Committee or the National Council, but they usually control these bodies with the help of "independent delegates." It has headquarters in Tunis and bases in other Middle Eastern countries. It has had close political and financial ties to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and other moderate Gulf states, which were, however, disrupted by the Gulf crisis of 1990 and 1991. It also had links to Jordan. It has received weapons, explosives, and training from the former USSR and the former Communist regimes of East European states. China and North Korea have reportedly sold Fatah some weapons.
Since 1969, Fatah`s leadership has become almost synonymous with PLO leadership. The founders of Fatah were Yasser Arafat; Khalil al-Wazir (Abu Jihad), killed in 1988; Salah Khalaf (Abu Iyad), killed in 1991; Faruq al-Qaddumi (Abu al-Lutuf); and Khaled al-Hassan, Yusuf al-Najjar (killed in 1973); Mahmud Abbas (Abu Mazen); Hani al-Hassan; and Salim al-Za`nun, former representative in Kuwait, and since 1994 the Chairman of the Palestinian National Council.
The origins of Fatah were in the Palestinian Student Association in Cairo, which was headed by Arafat with Khalaf as his deputy. In 1956, Salah Khalaf succeeded Arafat, who had graduated from the University. The founders of Fatah represented a departure in the Palestinian national leadership, which had come from the notable families, until 1948. Like many other Palestinian organization leaders at that time, they appealed to the rising middle class and new bourgeoisie in Palestinian society. Their mobility and rise to national leadership had been made possible by the uprooting of much of the Palestinian social structure.
In the late 1950`s Fatah began to coalesce in Kuwait, and to draw attention in the Arab world to the Palestinian cause. They felt that a popular armed struggle was the only way to break the pattern of Arab indifference to the Palestine problem and pave the way for the liberation of Palestine. Their basic assumption was that in view of the regional Arab situation and low priority given to the liberation of Palestine, the Palestinians must take the initiative themselves.
Because of their limited capabilities, the initiative would have to take the form of guerrilla warfare against Israel, but the founders of Fatah felt that the Arab masses would gradually join the movement. When their numbers became sufficient, Fatah expected, Arab regimes would have to support the liberation war. Thus, while Fatah called for self-sustained national struggle on one hand, it called for a common united Arab effort on the other hand, as the only way that they prevail against Israel.
From the outset Fatah has focused simply and unambiguously on armed struggle and has been rather unincumbered by the complexities and restrictions of ideology, which has made it overwhelmingly popular in the Palestinian national liberation effort. Fatah has has a particular appealed to the Palestinian youth. The duty of armed struggle was, up to a point at least, a useful mechanism of nation building. Fatah has benefited from its strictly pragmatic approach to Arab regimes and politics in general.
Fatah`s nationalism has been pragmatic, but with strong traditional and Islamic tendencies. It has rejected both Marxist and Leninist leanings of other Palestinian guerrilla groups. Fatah maintained that discussion of social and political-ideology is divisive, and is a luxury that can be deferred until it is victorious. Fatah has tried to establish itself as the prototype of the Palestinian state by undertaking a variety of military, social, economic and cultural responsibilities toward the Palestinian refugee population.
Fatah is headquartered in Tunis and has bases in other Middle Eastern countries. It is controlled by a rigid hierarchic institutional structure, nominally reflecting democratic process throughout: The General Conference (300-500 members); The Revolutionary Council (75 members), and the Central Committee (15-21 members). Nevertheless, the hard core leadership still controlls. Until 1989, the General Conference had only been convened five times and rarely based on elections. Members of the Revolutionary Council were mainly appointed. The Central Committee members were appointed by Ararat.
Fatah was clandestine until its first communique, announcing in the name of its military arm "Thunderstorm" (al-`assifa), the first military operation on January 1, 1965. This was apparently aimed at the Israeli National Water Carrier. Henceforth, the organization operated mainly from Lebanon and the West Bank of Jordan, enacting punitive measures on the part of these two Arab states, but partly supported by Syria.
Fatah had failed to establish a secret guerrilla infrastructure within the West Bank in the course of the summer of 1967, but its prestige rose after Israel`s retaliatory operation in March 1968 against their bases in Karameh, a village in the Jordan Valley. There were many Palestinian casualties, and the Jordanian army was involved in the battle, but the Israeli forces did sustain thirty-three casualties in the operation and left armored vehicles on the battlefield. This engagement created an image of the Palestinian guerrilla forces as the only real Arab force actually fighting Israel. It became useful for the PLO to incorporate Fatah into its organization, which it did in 1968. Fatah`s military buildup, evolved throughout the late 1960`s and the 1970`s. It took on two main forms: clandestine apparatuses, under the "Western Sector" (al-qita` al-gharbi), aimed at building secret cells in the occupied territories, Israel, and the Arab countries, and conducting guerrilla warfare against Israeli military and civilian targets alike; and in the wake of the expulsion from Jordan in 1970-1971, Fatah formed three brigades (Qastel, Yarmuc, and Karameh), deployed in Lebanon.
At its peak in the 1970`s Fatah`s membership was probably between 6,000 and 10,000, while most other guerrilla groups had no more than a few hundred fulltime fighters. Throughout its military history, Fatah was supported in various ways by the Arab states, until 1976 primarily by Syria, Algeria, USSR, and China. Beginning in the early 1970`s Fatah Katyusha rockets in quantity. It later developed its artillery capability, which was deployed in south Lebanon. During the 1970`s, Fatah developed a small maritime force, equipped with rubber boats to enable access to Israel from the sea.
Its commanders were expelled from Jordan following violent confrontations with Jordanian forces during the period 1970 to 1971, beginning with Black September in 1970. The Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 led to the group`s dispersal to several Middle Eastern countries, including Tunisia, Yemen, Algeria, Iraq, and others. Maintains several military and intelligence wings that have carried out terrorist attacks, including Force 17 and the Western Sector. Two of its leaders, Abu Jihad and Abu Iyad, were assassinated in recen