Fatah (Arabic: الفتح al-fatah -- literally: "the victory through holy struggle") is a Palestinian faction founded in 1959 by Yasser Arafat, who until his death, was head of the Palestinian Authority. Fatah is the reverse spelling of the acronym Hataf (Harekat at-Tahrir al-Wataniyyeh al-Falastiniyyeh), which means "Palestine Homeland Liberation Movement" Fatah was committed to destruction of Israel as part of a world wide Islamic Brotherhood movement started in Egypt (Arafat's home country). In 1967 - 1968, Fatah joined the PLO and won the leadership role in 1969. Fatah's commanders were expelled to Lebanon from Jordan following violent confrontations with Jordanian forces during the period 1970 - 1971, beginning with Black September in 1970.In the 1960sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s Years: 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 Events and trends The 1960s was a turbulent decade of change around and the 1970sMillennia: 1st millennium 2nd millennium 3rd millennium Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s Years: 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 Events and trends, Fatah provided training to a wide range of EuropeFor the band of the same name, see Europe (band . Europe is a continent forming the westermost part of the Eurasian supercontinent. Europe is bounded to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Mediterranean Sean, Middle EastThe Middle East is a geographical and cultural area comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. The Middle East is a subregion of Afrern, AsiaThe continent of Asia is defined by subtracting Europe and Africa from the great land mass of Africa-Eurasia. The boundaries are vague, especially between Asia and Europe: Asia and Africa meet somewhere near the Suez Canal. The boundary between Asia and En, and AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest continent in both area and population, after Asia. 30,244,050 km2 (11,677,240 mi2) including the islands, it covers 20. 3% of the total land area on Earth, and with over 800 million human inhabitants it accounts for arn militant and insurgent groups, and carried out numerous acts of international terrorism, such as hijacking of civilian planes and political assassinations, in Western EuropeWestern Europe is distinguished from Central Europe and Eastern Europe by differences of history and culture rather than by geography. However, these boundaries of Europe are subject to considerable overlap and fluctuation, which makes differentiation dif and the Middle East during the 1970s. Fatah also engaged in guerrilla warfare against the Israeli security forces and carried out terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians. When Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, the faction was dispersed to several Middle Eastern countries with the help of US and other Western governments: Tunisia, Yemen, Algeria, Iraq and others. Arafat himself signed the Declaration of Principles with Israel in 1993 and renounced terrorism and violence, and was allowed to return to the Palestinian territories from exile in Tunisia, however, the group has subsequently been linked to continuing attacks against Israeli and foreign civilians within Israel and the occupied territories, and to guerrilla warfare against Israeli occupation soldiers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the against the security forces inside Israel. Fatah maintains several armed groups, called wings, that have carried out operations, including Force 17 , the Hawari Special Operations Group , Tanzim and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.
Fatah received weapons, explosives, and training from the former USSR and the former Communist regimes of East European states. China and North Korea have reportedly provided some weapons.
Fatah has "Observer Party" status at the Socialist International.
