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TANZIM |
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TANZIM |
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BBC |
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Tanzim in the Streets |
On October 10, 1959, a group of about twenty Palestinians met in Kuwait and secretly formed Fatah (or al-Fatah, which is an acronym standing for Harakat Al-Tahrir Al-Watani Al-Filastini - the Movement for the National Liberation of Palestine), an organization that became the principle component of the Palestine Liberation Organization under the leadership of Yasser Arafat. The Tanzim ("organization" in Arabic) was established in 1983 as part of Fatah. While the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) has yielded to the Palestinian Authority (PA), Yasser Arafat's Fatah contingent remains the dominant player.
Note that when Fatah was formed in 1959 and when the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was formed in 1964, the only territory to liberate was the State of Israel. After Israel's 1948-49 War of Independence, until the Six Day War of 1967, the territories of the West Bank and Gaza were occupied by Jordan and Egypt respectively.
The Tanzim is a body divided into sectors and cells and is involved in all central Fatah functions within the Palestinian population i.e., political and educational activities and military training at all levels, including youth camps from a very young age. These military courses are run by officers from the Palestinian security apparatus. The organization has many weapons, some of which are known to have been illegally supplied by the PA under orders from Arafat.
The PA financially supports day-to-day activities of the Tanzim, and Arafat is personally involved in the selection of senior leaders in the organization. Tanzim operates as an armed militia for enforcing order on the Palestinian street. Arafat uses the Tanzim to inflame the situation in the field to achieve goals that he has been unsuccessful in achieving via diplomatic means. Arafat also uses the Tanzim to incite Israeli Arabs, with whom they associate and mix. In this way, he can always claim that the violent outbursts are a result of popular sentiment venting itself on the street. Tanzim's operations were the spearhead of Fatah activities against Israel during the period of the Intifada.
The senior commanders of the Tanzim enjoy high-ranking status in the PA. As a result of their seniority and position, together with the recommendation of the appropriate authorities in the PA, some of them are members and active in the ruling central bodies and institutions.
There are often tensions and power struggles between the Tanzim and another faction in the PA, known as the "outsider" leadership. These are the people who arrived from Tunisia following the Oslo Agreements and who today represent the majority among the leaders of the various mechanisms and senior positions in the PA. The Tanzim face an identity problem: on the one hand, Tanzim is part of the general organization, while on the other, it reflects the feelings of the population, not necessarily in line with the official position of the PA leaders. Often this is reflected in more extreme positions coming from Tanzim.
Tanzim activists have been responsible for numerous recent riots, under the direction of Arafat. This has been an acknowledged pattern of operation since the Oslo Agreements, such as the Western Wall Tunnel riots in September 1996, the Nakba day riots in May 2000 and during Summer, 2001.
During October 2000, Fatah created a special unit for armed operations against Israel: the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades. Tanzim commanders, like Atef Abiyat in Bethlehem, doubled as the local commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.
Israel has requested incessantly, after every violent outburst, that the Tanzim be disarmed. According to the Oslo Agreements, the PA weapons were supplied for use by the Palestinian police only, and the quantities of guns were specified and supposed to be known. The Tanzim are not part of these agreements, and it is a persistent violation of the Oslo Agreements that they have weapons. Although the Palestinian Authority promised to disarm the Tanzim and curtail their activities, exactly the opposite occurred in reality.
In the West Bank, the Tanzim have had two main leaders. Marwan Barghouti, was one of the founders of the Shabiba, the Fatah youth organization. Expelled by Israel in the late 1980s, Barghouti served in PLO headquarters in Tunis. He returned to the West Bank in 1994, and in 1996 was elected to the PA's Legislative body, representing the Ramallah district. In the last elections, he lost to his opponent, Hussein Al-Sheikh for the position of General Secretary of Fatah in the West Bank, but Arafat cancelled the results of the elections. Barghouti was head of the Fatah supreme committee in the West Bank and leader of the military wing of the Al-Aqsa Brigades. During the al-Aqsa Intifada Barghouti's Tanzim were the main force organizing and carrying out thousands of terror attacks against Israel, including suicide bombings.
On April 14, 2002 an IDF force in Ramallah captured Barghouti, and Israel put him on public trial in Tel Aviv in Summer, 2002, which Barghouti used as a forum to challenge Israeli policies against the Palestinians. Barghouti's nephew, Ahmed Taleb Mustapha Barghouti, alias "The Frenchman", was arrested on April 15, and on June 23, 2002, was charged with a 52-count indictment for terrorist acts.
Hussein Al-Sheikh, also a Ramallah resident, is a political opponent of Bargouti. He is a central figure in Ramallah-based activities, and recently had been competing with Bargouti for extremist viewpoints. Al-Sheikh is supported by Hachem Balawy, who was appointed by Arafat to reduce the power of Bargouti.
In the Gaza Strip, Ahmad Chiles was a minor activist in the organization until he was recently appointed as the Fatah secretary in Gaza. Chiles is a seasoned veteran from the Intifada period. He is an extremist and serious inciter of violence. His brother, Dachlan, a senior officer in the Palestinian security forces, controls the Fatah apparatus in the Gaza Strip.
Since Fall, 2001, Tanzim in the Bethlehem area purposely shot from churches and holy sites on several occasions, in an attempt to provoke an Israeli response that would result in harsh criticism of Israel from the international and Christian communities. After the 38 day occupation of the Church of the Nativity in Bethleham during Spring, 2002, the terrorists involved were released into European exile. Two of them, Tanzim members Ibrahim Mussa Abayat and Jihad Yusef Halil Ja'ara had murdered an American citizen in Israel before fleeing to the Church of the Nativity. Under US law, individuals who commit acts of terrorism against American nationals may be prosecuted for such acts in the United States, regardless of where the acts took place. The US Congress has prodded the Executive Branch to enforce the law by extraditing the terrorists.
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