''Tanzim'' ( ', "The Organization") is a militant faction of the Palestinian Fatah movement. Led by Marwan Barghouti, who is serving life sentences for murder in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

, it gained prominence during the

Second Intifada The Second Intifada (; ), also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, was a major uprising by Palestinians against Israel and its Israeli-occupied territories, occupation from 2000. Starting as a civilian uprising in Jerusalem and October 2000 prot ...

. Tanzim operates at the community level and has significantly pulled Palestinian support from Islamist groups. It has participated in violent acts against both military and civilian targets, and some of its members have even conducted suicide bombings.

Overview

The Tanzim militia, founded in 1995 by

Yasser Arafat Yasser Arafat (4 or 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), also popularly known by his Kunya (Arabic), kunya Abu Ammar, was a Palestinian political leader. He was chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1969 to 2004, Presid ...

and other Fatah leaders to counter Palestinian

Islamism Islamism is a range of religious and political ideological movements that believe that Islam should influence political systems. Its proponents believe Islam is innately political, and that Islam as a political system is superior to communism ...

, is widely considered to be an armed offshoot of Fatah with its own leadership structure. The acknowledged head of the Tanzim is Marwan Barghouti, who (as of 2017) is serving five consecutive life sentences in Israel for murder. The Tanzim is a grass roots organization that operates at the community level. By taking a hardline position against Israel, it has helped siphon Palestinian support from the Islamist groups to the

Palestinian Authority The Palestinian Authority (PA), officially known as the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), is the Fatah-controlled government body that exercises partial civil control over the Palestinian enclaves in the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, ...

and

PLO The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ) is a Palestinian nationalist coalition that is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinian people in both the occupied Palestinian territories and the diaspora. ...

leadership. Tanzim came to prominence in the street fighting which marked the beginning of the second Palestinian Intifada. Its members tend to be younger than those of other Fatah factions, often having grown up in the post-Oslo era. Many Tanzim members have joined the al-Shaid Yasser Arafat Brigades (formerly the ''al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades''). Tanzim has also recruited female suicide bombers, including Andaleeb Takatka, a 20-year-old

Bethlehem Bethlehem is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, located about south of Jerusalem, and the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate. It had a population of people, as of . The city's economy is strongly linked to Tourism in the State of Palesti ...

woman who detonated an explosive belt at a

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

bus stop in April 2002, killing six Israeli civilians, and injuring sixty. Marwan Barghouti, widely described as heading Tanzim, explicitly condemned terror attacks within Israel, writing "While I, and the Fatah movement to which I belong, strongly oppose attacks and the targeting of civilians inside Israel, our future neighbor, I reserve the right to protect myself, to resist the Israeli occupation of my country and to fight for my freedom." At the beginning of the

, Hussein Abayat, leader of Tanzim in Beit Sahur, was killed in a helicopter attack by the IDF on 9 November 2000. The operation is considered the first time that Israel publicly acknowledged conducting a

targeted killing Targeted killing is a form of assassination carried out by governments Extrajudicial killing, outside a judicial procedure or a battlefield. Since the late 20th century, the legal status of targeted killing has become a subject of contention wit ...

. Abayat's assistant Khaled Salahat was severely wounded in the strike. On 15 February 2015, the Israeli army arrested Jamal Abu Lel, charging that he was "the head of" the Tanzim "terrorist organization," running it from the Qalandiya refugee camp while carrying an Israeli permanent resident identity card due to his residing in Kfar Aqab, on the other side of the Jerusalem Airport from Qalandiya. Abu Lel is accused by the

Shin Bet The Israel Security Agency (ISA; , (GSS); ), better known by the Hebrew acronyms, acronyms Shabak (; ; ) or Shin Bet (from the abbreviation of , "Security Service"), is Israel's internal Security agency, security service. Its motto is "''Magen ...

of funding and directing terrorist and shooting attacks against Israelis.

Attacks against military and civilian targets

Fatah Tanzim have conducted a number of attacks against Israeli civilians and military, including against women and children. Below is a partial list of terrorist attacks:

References

External links

Fatah Tanzim
at GlobalSecurity.org {{Fatah Anti-Israeli sentiment in Palestine Fatah Palestinian militant groups Military wings of socialist parties Defunct Palestinian militant groups 1995 establishments in Palestine Organizations designated as terrorist by Israel

Overview

Attacks against military and civilian targets

See also

References

External links