Quote:
Originally Posted by Vincent
I'm not informed about this Palstinain issue, so a short question. Who is behind the most attacks on Israelis, Hamas or Fatah?
As far as I am informed about these two parties, I despise Hamas, but more or less have sympathies for Fatah.
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Fatah is the political organization created by the late Yasser Arafat. The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) was its military wing. It was created in the beginning of the sixties to fight for an independent Palestine, against the Zionist state of Israel. Inside Fatah you had many sub-groups, many ramifications, splinter organizations, very often at odds with each other or even in an open internecine conflict (assassinations etc).
Fatah (ie. PLO) and its various splinter groups fought against Israel for decades, not shunning the terrorist modes of struggle as well. But as I said, Zionists were the first one to use terrorist tactics in Palestine/Israel, when Plaestine was still under the Bristih mandate. Assassinations of British officials and soldiers as well as massacres against Arabs/Palestinians happened quite frequently. Immediately after the Decaration of Independence of Israel in 1948 the famous
Deir Yassin massacre against the local Arab population followed. A mass exodus of Palestinian Arabs (mostly Muslims, but also Christians) from the newly created State of Israel ensued. They lived in refugee camps in various Arab states and it was there that Fatah as a politico-military movement for the recuperation of Palestine was born.
Most of the members of Fatah and its splinter groupations (like for example the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, DFLP) were practicing Muslims, but the movement was not expicitly Islamic nor Islamist.
Hamas, on the other hand, was created in 1987, on more "Islamist" principles. There are some indications that Israeli secret services might have contributed in founding Hamas, with the aim to counter the all-pervading influence of the Fatah upon the Palestinian affairs in general.
Fatah became a driving force behind the formation of the Palestinian Autonomy in 1993 and it was recognized as the leading political force of the newly created autonomous territory by Israel as well. Later on Hamas came into prominence.