SUMMARY
The name Fatah is an acronym of the organization’s full name –Harakat al-Tahrir al Wataniyyeh al-Falastiniyyeh- spelled backwards. The word translates into “conquest”. Other spellings and names are Fateh and Al-Fatah.
The Fatah movement was established in 1958 with the expressed motive of creating a Palestinian-run organization for the liberation of Palestine. The group was founded by Yasser Arafat, Salah Khaleb and Faruq al Kaduwi in Cairo, and Yasser Arafat, aka Abu Ammar, became the group’s leader. Fatah is of a nationalist secular orientation, ascribing neither to Islamic doctrine or left-right extreme ideologies, and appear to have been strongly influenced by the writings of anti-colonialist Franz Fanon (who also inspired the ANC’s military wing) and the Algerian anti-colonial struggle. The goals of Fatah were initially to establish a Palestinian state and eradicate Israel.
After initially being opposed to the Arab League’s PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) Fatah merged with the organization in 1964, and Arafat became the organization’s leader in 1968, and thereby rose to the forefront of the Palestinian liberation struggle. Fatah’s leading role, signified by its leadership of the PNA (Palestine National Authority) since the 1993 Oslo Accords, put the organization at odds with rejectionist and Islamic militant groups due to its willingness to negotiate and yield concessions to Israel.
Fatah’s relations with the other Palestinian militant factions are complicated, and shift according to changes in the organization’s interests and the strength of other groups. Tensions between Hamas and Fatah have been particularly evident since 1994, and especially after 2005.
Throughout the years since its inception Fatah has received much support, financial and logistical, from the Gulf States and Iraq, and found refuge in Jordan, southern Lebanon and Tunisia. Such support however has come and gone through the years depending on the wider international climate in the Arab and Gulf world. When being in charge of the PNA Fatah has received considerable amounts of money and equipment from the EU and the US, but this aid was specifically linked to the PNA, and not Fatah.
Fatah has ties to a long list of armed wings and offshoot factions, the most prominent being the Tanzim armed wing (officially abolished in 1993 following the Oslo Accords), the Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigades (whose connections to Fatah are surrounded by speculation) and the Force 17. It is important to note that after the establishment of the Fatah-dominated PNA and the creation of various police and security elements under the authority of this self-governing institution, the lines between Fatah and the PNA become blurred. The bulk of PNA forces were drawn from Fatah militants to create such distinct forces as the police force, the Palestinian Preventive Security Service and the General Security Service. As a consequence dual and even triple allegiances exist, complicating any distinction between who is Fatah, who is AMB and who is PNA, to name but one example. Some documents, although labelled by Fatah as forgeries, ties the organization to funding and logistical support of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades (AMB). The AMB became a formal part of Fatah in late 2004. Fatah has a presence in southern Lebanon refugee camps, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, with West Bank cities and villages being the organization’s strongholds.
Since its inception, and up until his death in 2004, Fatah was lead by strongman Yasser Arafat. He was replaced by Faruq al-Kaduwi (Farouk Kaddoumi), who led the organization until 2009, when Mahmoud Abbas, the Fatah President of the PNA, became the group's chairman.
Fatah has been involved in the intrastate, non-state and one-sided categories of UCDP organised violence.
