Fatah (Palestine)

فتح, Palestine National Liberation Movement

Last modified: 2009-05-16 by eugene ipavec
Keywords: palestine | politics | fatah | palestine liberation movement | harakat tahrir filistin | gun | kalashnikov | map | shield (white) |
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حركة التحرير الوطني الفلسطيني, Harakat al-Tahrir al-Watani al-Filastini, Palestine National Liberation Movement

image by Eugene Ipavec, 28 Sep 2005	image by Eugene Ipavec, 30 Apr 2007

• Introduction
• Variant
• Variants With Keffiyeh-Pattern Background
• Vertical Banners
• Emblem

• al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades
• Fatah Hawks
• Political Parties (Palestine)
• Palestine

Introduction

Fatah or the Palestine Liberation Movement (the name is derived from the initials of the Arabic name, Harakat Tahrir Filistin, in reverse) was founded by Arafat and a handful of close comrades in the late 1950s. They wanted to rally Palestinians in the diaspora to launch commando raids on the young Israeli state. The group came out into the open in 1965; under Arafat's effective leadership it became the strongest and best-organised of the Palestinian factions and it has remained so ever since.

Fatah has had its own militias in the past, the Fatah Hawks. Arafat loyalists, the Fatah Hawks were key players in the first Palestinian intifada which broke out in 1987. The Fatah Hawks were dissolved, but in 1995 the Fatah leadership instituted its own militia, the Tanzim.

The word Tanzim is Arabic for "organisation." The Tanzim can be considered a "reincarnation" of the Fatah Hawks. It is only partially controled by Arafat now.

Sources: BBC and CNN.

Santiago Tazón, 24 July 2001

Yellow flags are associated with Fatah. Frequently long vertical flags are displayed with the Fatah (or also Youth Fatah) emblem in the center and inscriptions above and/or below.

Jaume Ollé, 27 Mar 2003

image by Eugene Ipavec, 30 Apr 2007	image by Eugene Ipavec, 30 Apr 2007

A photo accompanies this article from REUTERS:

Relatives carry the body of a Palestinian man during a funeral inside the Jabalya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip (news - web sites), December 16, 2003. Two Palestinians were killed overnight on Tuesday when troops opened fire on a group of people approaching Gaza's border fence with Israel, security sources said. At daybreak, soldiers searching the area found the bodies, apparently unarmed, near the border. REUTERS/Jerry Lampen

Santiago Dotor, 16 Dec 2003

The photo of the covering of the body, probably a flag, is interesting – a seal over writing over a background resembling a keffiyah.

Nathan Lamm, 16 Dec 2003

A photo of a different keffiyeh-background flag, with a slightly different (older?) Fatah logo inside a white circle.

Bill Garrison , 06 Oct 2006

image by Eugene Ipavec, 30 Jun 2007	image by Eugene Ipavec, 30 Jun 2007