Al Fatah

Formed by Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat during his youth, Al Fatah is the biggest and most influential group within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Arafat and his colleague Khalil Wazir (later known by the nom de guerre Abu Jihad) founded Al Fatah after leaving Egypt for Kuwait in 1957. Fatah's platform departed from the pan-Arabism of the day and instead called on the Palestinians themselves to led an armed struggle for Palestine. The group began as [Page 14]an unnamed network of underground cells. Members published Our Palestine: The Call to Life, a magazine in which they called for the eradication of Israel. The magazine set forth Fatah's mission and brought in new recruits. Al Fatah formally organized in 1963 and set up a central governing committee.

The name Al Fatah is a reverse acronym for the Arabic phrase “Harakat al-Tahir al Watani al Filastini” (“Movement ...