Al Fatah, is the reverse acronym of Harakat al-Tahrir al-Filistiniya, which translated results

in Palestinian National Liberation Movement. On the other hand Fatah means conquering
or victory, and is used in religious scripts referring to the Islamic expansion on the early
centuries of Islamic history.

Al Fatah was founded to pursue the creation of an independent Palestinian state, this
nationalist political movement opposes the creation of the Israeli state in 1948 after the
Mandatory Palestine period and rallies Palestinians in diaspora on neighboring countries to
execute raids on the newly founded Israeli state.

Early in 1960 Al Fatah was installed in the Gaza Strip, to later start their armed movement
against Israel the on January the first 1965 through a vast military operation under the name
of al-Assifa, which translates as the tempest. After the Arab coalition defeat in 1967 to the
Israeli army in the war of the 6 days, where Israel won important sums of territory,
including the Gaza Strip Al-Fatahs importance grew among Palestinians, and from this
moment onwards started a phase of internal fight, during which the organization radicalized
their actions against Israel, resulting in an approximate of 2,432 attacks on Israel only in
1967, most of them failed, and resulting in the capture of a thousand Palestinian soldiers.

In 1968 the movement integrated to the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization), which
later in 1969 Yasser Arafat started presiding simultaneously to Fatah. From that moment
onwards they multiplied their attacks on Israel from different countries, such as Jordan,
Lebanon and Syria. Fatah in 1970 was overwhelmed by more radical members of the PLO,
the combats between this more radical groups and Jordans militia led to their vanishing
form Jordan and relocation to Lebanon. This violent politics continued until the
assassination of 11 Olympic Israeli athletes in 1972, after which they decided to reorientate
their politics to seek international recognition to the Palestinian cause.

In 1993, during the Oslo Accords Arafat was recognized as the representative of the
Palestinian community, and signed with Israel the Principles Declaration, the first step in
the peacemaking process, this agreement stated the retreat of Israel from the occupied
territories, the right to self-government (which led to the foundation of the Palestinian
Authority) and a cease in terrorist acts against Israel from the PLO
After the foundation of the Palestinian Authority in 1994, Arafat served as the president
until his death in 2004. After his death Palestine held their first presidential elections since
1996 where Fatah nominated candidate Mahmoud Abbas won with 60%of the votes, the
charge of president is set to last 4 years, but the elections have been postponed indefinitely
to safeguard national unity.

Bibliography:

Beyer, L. (2004). A Life in Retrospect: Yasser Arafat. 14/11/16, de Time Sitio web:
http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,781566-1,00.html

BBC Mundo. (2009). Radiografa de Fatah. 14/11/16, de BBC Sitio web:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/international/newsid_4646000/4646628.stm

BBC News. (2007). Palestinian rivals: Fatah & Hamas. 14/11/16, de BBC Sitio
web: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5016012.stm

BBC News. (2011). Profile: Fatah Palestinian movement. 14/11/16, de BBC Sitio
web: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-13338216

Peoples Daily Online. (2007). Abbas insists on amended electoral law. 14/11/16,
de Peoples Daily Sitio web: http://en.people.cn/90001/90777/6253192.html

Reut Institute. (2006). Crisis of Palestinian Representation. 14/11/16, de Reut

Institute Sitio web: http://www.reut-institute.org/en/Publication.aspx?
PublicationId=1225