Fatah summary

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Fatah , inverted acronym of Ḥarakat al-Taḥrīr al-Waṭanī al-Filasṭīnī (“Palestine National Liberation Movement”), Palestinian guerrilla organization and political party, whose name means “conquest” in Arabic. Founded by Yāsir ʿArafāt and Khalīl al-Wazīr in the late 1950s, the movement relied on guerrilla warfare and occasional acts of terrorism in an attempt to wrest Palestine from Israeli control. It eventually became the largest faction within the Palestine Liberation Organization and attacked Israeli interests worldwide. Originally based in Damascus, it was forced to relocate several times before a political agreement was reached with Israel in 1993. A number of factions within Fatah rejected the goal of peace with Israel and split from the main organization. In 1994 the Palestinian Authority was established, and Fatah dominated the governing body for more than a decade. In the 2006 elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council, the group was unexpectedly defeated by the rival organization Ḥamās.

terrorism Summary

Terrorism, the calculated use of violence to create a general climate of fear in a population and thereby to bring about a particular political objective. Terrorism has been practiced by political organizations with both rightist and leftist objectives, by nationalistic and religious groups, by

Israel Summary

Israel, country in the Middle East, located at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. It is bounded to the north by Lebanon, to the northeast by Syria, to the east and southeast by Jordan, to the southwest by Egypt, and to the west by the Mediterranean Sea. Jerusalem is the seat of government

Palestine Liberation Organization Summary

Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), umbrella political organization claiming to represent the world’s Palestinians—those Arabs, and their descendants, who lived in mandated Palestine before the creation there of the State of Israel in 1948. It was formed in 1964 to centralize the leadership of

Damascus Summary

Damascus, city, capital of Syria. Located in the southwestern corner of the country, it has been called the “pearl of the East,” praised for its beauty and lushness; the 10th-century traveler and geographer al-Maqdisī lauded the city as ranking among the four earthly paradises. Upon visiting the