Fatah

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Fatah
فتح
Fatah Flag.svg
Party leader Mahmoud Abbas
Secretary General Djibril ar-Radschub
Deputy Chairman Mahmoud Aloul
founding 1959
Headquarters Ramallah
Alignment Social democracy
democratic socialism
anti-zionism
Parliament seats 45/132
International connections Socialist International , Progressive Alliance
European party Party of European Socialists (observer)
Website www.fatehmedia.ps
The official coat of arms of Fatah shows two fists holding guns and a grenade against the background of a map of historical Palestine (the territory of the State of Israel , the West Bank and the Gaza Strip ), the sleeves consist of two Palestinian national flags

The Fatah ([ Fatah ], but actually correct [ Fath ] - Arabic فتح" DMG fat"  "Conquest, Victory") is a political party in the Palestinian Territories . The name is an acronym and ananym ofحركة التحرير الوطني الفلسطيني Ḥ arakat at- T aḥrīr al-waṭanī al- F ilasṭīnī 'Movement for the National Liberation of Palestine'. Combine these initial letters and read them backwards to create the word for “opening, opening, liberating; (Remove obstacles) ", cf. futūh .

According to its constitution of 1964, the organization pursued the “complete liberation of Palestine” , the “establishment of an independent democratic state with complete sovereignty over the Palestinian territories and Jerusalem as capital” and the “extermination of the economic, political, military and cultural existence of the Zionism ” . In the same constitution, it viewed the “Israeli existence in Palestine” as a “ Zionist invasion with a colonial expansion base” . Fatah has also used terrorist means in the past to achieve these goals.

As part of the Oslo peace process , Fatah in 1993 recognized under its chairman Yasser Arafat , the existence of Israel on, pleaded for peace process and renounced terrorism as a political means.

Today Fatah is the strongest faction within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). She is a full member of the Socialist International and has observer status in the Social Democratic Party of Europe .

In early May 2011, Fatah signed a reconciliation agreement with Hamas , according to which both plan to form a joint transitional government.

history

Started as a guerrilla organization

On October 10, 1959, Fatah was founded as a guerrilla organization by Yasser Arafat together with Salah Chalaf , Chalil al-Wazir and Faruq Qaddumi in Kuwait . She saw the armed struggle as a suitable means of achieving Palestinian independence. At the end of 1964, the Fatah commandos carried out the first attacks in Israel. In the years that followed, the irregulars operated mainly from Jordan, carrying out bomb attacks and setting up ambushes. The Israeli government responded by blowing up houses housing Fatah fighters and evicting supporters. Between June 1967 and December 1968 over 600 Palestinians, over 200 Israeli soldiers and 47 Israeli civilians were killed.

The battle of Karame represented a turning point in the further development . The Israeli punitive expedition to Karame (Jordan) cost 124 militants, including 91 members of Fatah, their lives, but the losses on the Israeli side were also high. In the Arab world, the battle was celebrated as a great victory that restored the Arab honor tarnished since the defeat in the Six Day War . The battle confirmed Fatah in its chosen path and initiated the takeover of power in the PLO. In June 1968 the PLO mandates were redistributed, with the various resistance movements now forming the vast majority. Fatah became the strongest faction in the PLO, and in February 1969 Fatah chief Arafat was elected chairman of the organization. The PLO had thus turned from an organization founded under the aegis of Nasser to the forum of the Palestinian national movement. Nevertheless, like the Palestinian cause in general, it continued to be instrumentalized by the Arab states for their own ends.

From June to August 1970, Andreas Baader , Gudrun Ensslin , Ulrike Meinhof , Horst Mahler , Peter Homann , Brigitte Asdonk and about a dozen other terrorists from the Red Army Faction stayed in a Jordanian Fatah camp, where they received basic training in weapons science and shooting , unarmed combat , hand grenade throwing , explosives manufacture and combat tactics . This enabled the RAF to organize their struggle in the Federal Republic and represented a milestone in the development of terrorism, since for the first time a terrorist group had trained another with different goals and different nationalities.

Expulsion from Jordan

Fatah fighters in West Beirut during the Lebanese civil war

The uprising of Fatah and other Palestinian groups against the Jordanian royal family that broke out in September 1970 failed in July 1971 and led to the complete expulsion of the irregulars from Jordan. Lebanon , especially its south , now served as the new base in the fight against Israel . When Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, the group dispersed into several states: Tunisia , Yemen , Algeria , Iraq and others. The leadership of Fatah including Yasser Arafat went into exile in Tunisia and stayed there until 1993.

Recognition of Israel and the Oslo peace process

In 1993 the PLO began secret peace negotiations with Israel in Oslo, which later went down in history as the Oslo Peace Process . On September 13, 1993, Fatah leader Yasser Arafat and the then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin signed the so-called Declaration of Principles on Temporary Self-Government (also known as "Oslo I"). The treaty is seen as a milestone in the Middle East peace process . For the first time, both sides recognized each other. While Israel accepted the PLO as the official representative of the Palestinians , the latter undertook to delete all passages from its charter that named the destruction of Israel as a goal. At the same time, mutual renunciation of terrorism was declared. The Fatah leadership was subsequently allowed to return to Palestine . This was followed by the establishment of the Palestinian Authority , in which the PLO became the strongest force. Representatives of Fatah point out that Fatah, unlike the PLO, has not recognized Israel because it is a party and not a state and only states can recognize each other, which is possible with the proclamation of the state of Palestine .

The letters exchanged between Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat on September 9 and 10, 1993, in the run-up to the Oslo I Treaty, are of particular importance . In his letter to Rabin, Arafat writes in his instance as chairman of the PLO:

“ The PLO recognizes the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace and security. "

“ The PLO accepts UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338. "

“ The PLO considers the signing of the Declaration of Principles to be a historic event that ushers in a new era of peaceful coexistence, free from violence and all other acts that endanger peace and stability. Accordingly, the PLO renounces the use of terrorism and other acts of violence and will take responsibility for all PLO elements and their personnel to ensure compliance with [the agreement], prevent violations and discipline violators. "

The same letter also states:

“ [...] the PLO confirms that those articles of the Palestinian Charter that deny Israel's right to exist and the provisions of the Charter that do not conform to the obligations of this letter are now ineffective and no longer valid. "

In September 1995, the next step in which Fatah took part under Yasser Arafat was the interim agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (also known as "Oslo II"). It was u. a. regulated the establishment of the Palestinian Council . In addition, since the Palestinians had not yet taken the appropriate step , it was agreed that the PLO would obtain an amendment to the Palestinian National Charter through the National Assembly.

Yitzhak Rabin and Fatah chairman Yassir Arafat received the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts in the peace process .

Recent history and planned reconciliation with Hamas

After the murder of Yitzhak Rabin , the peace process stalled and the Camp David negotiations failed, for which Israel and the PLO held each other responsible. The PLO was accused of playing twice, and also of having at least tolerated the outbreak of the 2nd Intifada in September 2000.

On March 19, 2003, Yasser Arafat appointed his confidante Mahmud Abbas , who was already involved with him in the Oslo peace process, to the post of Prime Minister . Abbas is considered moderate and raised many international hopes, but failed after just 100 days when he submitted his resignation. However, after Arafat's death in November 2004, he took over the chairmanship of the PLO. On January 9, 2005, Mahmoud Abbas was elected President of the Palestinian Authority and thus Arafat's successor with a clear majority .

The in February 2005 by Mahmoud Abbas and Ariel Sharon closed truce of Sharm el-Sheikh ended the second Intifada .

In the Palestinian parliamentary elections on January 25, 2006, Hamas won an absolute majority of the seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council . There was an open power struggle between the former ruling Fatah and Hamas, which led to a split in the Palestinian territories : after violent clashes, the Gaza Strip fell to Hamas (June 2007), the West Bank to Fatah.

Since the formation of the Palestinian government, Fatah has been criticized for corruption and nepotism. For Israel, Fatah is still the preferred negotiating partner among the Palestinians .

At the beginning of May 2011, Ismail Haniyya (Hamas) and Mahmoud Abbas signed, to the surprise of many, a reconciliation agreement that the Egyptian leadership had drawn up a year and a half earlier on behalf of the Arab League . Both groups plan to form a joint transitional government before the 2012 parliamentary elections . Palestinian political experts attributed this step to the Arab uprisings since the beginning of 2011. The Egyptian foreign ministry then announced that it would permanently open the border crossing at Rafah and thus end the Israeli blockade .

The work agreed in April 2014 on a unity government from Fatah and Hamas resulted in the appointment of Rami Hamdallah , who has been Prime Minister of the Palestinian Territories since June 6, 2013, as joint head of government of both governing parties . Hamas immediately confirmed this report. The filling of various ministerial posts was a result of the joint negotiations. Israel has already responded to this rapprochement by suspending the peace talks.

After years of hostility, Hamas approached Fatah in mid-September 2017 with an offer of reconciliation. They are ready to dissolve the controversial committee that administers the Gaza Strip and to respond to central demands of Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas . The offer came about through mediation by Egypt. The goal is u. a. to loosen the blockade of the Gaza Strip and to improve the humanitarian situation of the approx. two million inhabitants.

Political program

The primary goal of Fatah was the "complete liberation of Palestine" and "the extermination of the economic, political, military and cultural existence of Zionism" (Article 12 of the 1964 Constitution). This article was one of the main obstacles of radical groups within Fatah against the interim agreement signed by Yasser Arafat on the West Bank and Gaza Strip . After that, according to the program, an independent democratic state with complete sovereignty over the whole of Israel should emerge. Jerusalem should become the capital and all citizens should be given equal rights without racial or religious discrimination . The people's armed revolution is an indispensable means of liberating Palestine.

While Fatah changed as a result of the Oslo peace process into a comparatively moderate Palestinian faction, which, according to the letter of its chairman Arafat, recognized Israel's right to exist and renounced terrorism , there was a clear official direct change to the Palestinian National Charter according to the Oslo I Treaty to not today. The recognition of Israel by the Palestinian Authority was de facto indirect. In a meeting on April 26, 1996, she voted 504 to 54 with 14 abstentions:

"The Palestinian National Charter is hereby supplemented by the annulment of all articles which contradict the letters exchanged on September 9-10, 1993 between the PLO and the government of Israel."

Several groups stayed u. a. active in Lebanon and Palestine: the Hawari , Tanzim and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades .

On August 4, 2009, a Fatah delegates' congress took place for the first time since 1989.

Fatah dance im

The Tanzim militia was founded as a Fatah militia in the mid-1990s. Under her leader Marwan al-Barghuti , she played a central role in the al-Aqsa intifada that began in September 2000 .

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades

The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, organized in cells, are a terrorist, armed branch of Fatah. They were founded after the al-Aqsa Intifada and committed suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. Alleged Palestinian collaborators are among their victims . With the death of Yasser Arafat , the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades were renamed the Yasser Arafat Martyrs Brigades.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Introduction to the Fateh Constitution (Eng.)
  2. ↑ List of members of the Socialist International ( Memento from November 3, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ), accessed on August 18, 2013
  3. ↑ Mark Alexander Zöller: Terrorism Criminal Law : A Handbook , Heidelberg 2009, ISBN 9783811439214 , p. 39
  4. ↑ State Office for the Protection of the Constitution Baden-Württemberg : Red Army Fraction , Stuttgart July 19, 2011. ( online ( Memento from July 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ))
  5. ↑ Fatah has never recognized Israel and will never do so , Jerusalem Post, January 6, 2011 (Eng.)
  6. ^ From the online archive of the Israeli Foreign Ministry .
  7. ^ The Palestinian parliamentary elections of January 2006, German Institute of Global and Area Studies ( Memento of January 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 459 kB)
  8. ↑ www.faz.net
  9. ↑ cf. Palestinians seal reconciliation: The end of “four black years” ( Memento from May 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) at tagesschau.de, May 4, 2011 (accessed on May 4, 2011).
  10. ↑ Hamdallah is supposed to lead the Palestinian unity government. In: sueddeutsche.de. May 27, 2014, accessed March 9, 2018 .
  11. ↑ tagesschau.de: Hamas and Fatah: End of the brotherly feud in sight? , tagesschau.de, accessed on September 18, 2017 ( online )
  12. ↑ From the online archive of the US Department of State ( Memento of August 23, 2003 in the Internet Archive )
  13. ↑ Reuters: Fatah sticks to the option of fighting Israel. 4th August 2009.