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'''Palestinian fedayeen''' (from the ] ''fidā'ī'', plural ''fidā'īyun'', فدائيون: meaning, "](s)"<ref name=Nawawy>{{cite book|title=''The Israeli-Egyptian Peace Process in the Reporting of Western Journalists''|author=Mohammed El-Nawawy|publisher=Inc NetLibrary|year=2002|page=49|isbn=1567505457}}</ref> or "self-sacrificers"<ref name=Rea>{{cite book|title=''The Arab-Israeli Conflict''|author=Tony Rea and John Wright|publisher=]|year=1993|page=43|isbn=019917170X}}</ref>) is a term used to refer to ] (i.e. ]s or ]s) from among the ]. Considered "freedom fighters" by most Palestinians,<ref name=Glaser>{{cite book|title=''The Design of Dissent''|author=Milton Glaser and Mirko Ilic|year=2005|publisher=Rockport Publishers|isbn=1592531172}}</ref> most Israelis consider them to be "]s".
'''Palestinian fedayeen''' (from the ] ''fidā'ī'', plural ''fidā'īyun'', فدائيون: "one who is ready to sacrifice his life") refers to militant ] from among ]s, which engaged in a campaign of infiltrations, bombings, and murders in ], killing or wounding 1,300 ]s between 1949 and 1956, and which continued until the late 1970s. Palestinian fedayeen launched attacks from ], ], ], and ], and while they were generally supported by those governments, in some cases they came into conflict with them.<ref>], History of Israel, p. 450. cited at {{cite web |publisher= jafi.org |title= Fedayeen Raids 1951 -1956 |url=http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/maps/fed.html}}</ref>


The ''Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements'' defines '''fedayeen''' as "Palestinian resistance fighters"<ref name=Osmanczyk>{{cite book|title=''Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements''|author=Edmund Jan Osmanczyk|publisher=]|page=702|year=2002|isbn=0415939216}}</ref> and they have been considered symbols of the ].<ref name=Milton/> Drawing inspiration from guerrilla movements in ], ], and ], the fedayeen have always been portrayed in a ] role.<ref name=Milton/> Beverly Milton-Edwards describes them as "modern revolutionaries fighting for ], not religious salvation," and distinguishes them from '']'' (i.e. "fighters of the ] for ]").<ref name=Milton>{{cite book|title=''Islamic Politics in Palestine''|author=Beverley Milton-Edwards|year=1996|pages=94-95|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=1860644759}}</ref> <ref name=Footnote1>While the fallen soldiers of both mujahaddin and fedayeen are called ] (i.e. "martyrs") by Palestinians, Milton nevertheless contends that it would be political and religious blasphemy to call the "] fighters" of the fedayeen, mujahaddin.</ref>
==Involvement of President Nasser and Egyptian intelligence==


==Early fedayeen attacks==
President ] (1918 - 1970) openly deployed forces whom he called "fedayeen" in a 1955 call to arms against Israel:

The first attacks by Palestinian fedayeen were launched by ]s of the ], living in ]s in ], ], ], and ]. While the Palestinian fedayeen were generally supported by those governments, in some cases they came into conflict with them.<ref>], History of Israel, p. 450. cited at {{cite web |publisher= jafi.org |title= Fedayeen Raids 1951 -1956 |url=http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/maps/fed.html}}</ref>

According to Orna Almog, the very first attack by Palestinian fedayeen was launched by refugee fighters from Syrian territory in 1951, although the majority of the attacks between 1951 and 1953 were launched by Palestinian refugees from Jordanian territory.<ref name=Almog>{{cite book|title=''Britain, Israel, and the United States, 1955-1958: Beyond Suez''|author=Orna Almog|year=2003|page=20|publisher=]|isbn=0714652466}}</ref> These early fedayeen attacks were incursions on a limited scale. Yeshoshfat Harkabi, former head of Israeli military intelligence, stated that these early attacks were often motivated by economic reasons, with Palestinians crossing the border into Israel to, for example, harvest crops in their former villages.<ref name=Almog/> Fedayeen operations on a larger scale began to mounted from 1954 onwards from Egyptian territory.<ref name=Almog/>

Israel responded to these early attacks by conducting cross border operations in both Egypt and Jordan, "in order to 'teach' the Arab leaders that the Israeli government saw them as responsible for these activities, even if they had not directly conducted them."<ref name=Almog/> ] felt that retaliatory action by Israel was the only way to convince ] countries that for the safety of their own citizens, they should work to stop fedayeen infiltrations. Said Dayan, "We are not able to protect every man, but we can prove that the price for Jewish blood is high."<ref name=Almog/>

Between 1951 and 1956, 400 Israelis were killed and 900 wounded by fedayeen attacks. <ref>{{cite web | publisher=jafi.org | title=Map|url=http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/maps/fed.html}}</ref> Dozens of these attacks are today cited by the Israeli government as "Major Arab Terrorist Attacks against Israelis prior to the 1967 ]".
<ref>{{cite web | publisher=mfa.gov.il | title= Major terror attacks|url=http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Facts+About+Israel/Israel+in+Maps/1948-1967-+Major+Terror+Attacks.htm}}</ref> <ref>{{cite web | publisher=mfa.gov.il | title= Palestinina terror|url=http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-+Obstacle+to+Peace/Palestinian+terror+before+2000/Which+Came+First-+Terrorism+or+Occupation+-+Major.htm}}</ref> Israel's complaints that the fedayeen attacks violated the ] forbidding hostilities by paramilitary forces were ignored.{{fact|date=January 2007}}

===Israel establishes Unit 101===
{{Main|Unit 101}}

In 1953, ] ] created ], to retaliate against a spate of Arab ''fedayeen'' violence against Israelis. Its commander was Major ]. Unit 101 was disbanded in late 1955.

===Involvement of President Nasser and Egyptian intelligence===

According to the Jewish Virtual Library, President ] (1918 - 1970) adopted a new tactic in 1955 to prosecute Egypt's war with Israel, which he openly announced in a speech on ]:


:Egypt has decided to dispatch her heroes, the disciples of Pharaoh and the sons of Islam and they will cleanse the land of Palestine....There will be no peace on Israel's border because we demand vengeance, and vengeance is Israel's death.<ref>{{cite web |publisher= jewishvirtuallibrary.org | title= fedayeen |url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Terrorism/Fedayeen.html}}</ref> :Egypt has decided to dispatch her heroes, the disciples of Pharaoh and the sons of Islam and they will cleanse the land of Palestine....There will be no peace on Israel's border because we demand vengeance, and vengeance is Israel's death.<ref>{{cite web |publisher= jewishvirtuallibrary.org | title= fedayeen |url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Terrorism/Fedayeen.html}}</ref>


In 1955, 260 Israeli citizens were killed or wounded by fedayeen". <ref>{{cite web | publisher= adl.org | title=Record | url=http://www.adl.org/ISRAEL/Record/sinai.asp}}</ref> ] writes that the calculated acts of fedayeen terror, supported by the Arab countries, eventually contributed to the outbreak of the ].<ref>{{cite book| url=http://books.google.com/books?id=YUthqHRF-m8C&pg=PA420&lpg=PA420&dq=fedayeen+israel&source=web&ots=mz59gfgQCx&sig=MTOTo5reQeJnWZKeqnM7l9ZoSYg| title=Israel's Border Wars, 1949-1956: Arab Infiltration, Israeli Retaliation, and| author=]| publisher=Oxford University Press| year=1993| isbn=0198292627}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | publisher=palestinefacts.org | title= What happened during the period of the fedayeen attacks on Israel in the 1950s?|url=http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1948to1967_fedayeen.php}}</ref>
Scholars have noted that the fedayeen were trained and equipped by ] to engage in hostile action on its border with Israel, to infiltrate it and to to commit acts of sabotage and murder. The fedayeen also operated from bases in Jordan. The attacks violated the ] prohibiting hostilities by paramilitary forces, but it was Israel that was condemned by the UN Security Council for its counterattacks.<ref>{{cite web |publisher= jewishvirtuallibrary.org | title= Fedayeen |url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Terrorism/Fedayeen.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| url=http://books.google.com/books?id=cT16EWF9I4cC&pg=PA58&lpg=PA58&dq=fedayeen+israel&source=web&ots=mJR38hIH9V&sig=yGxT564et617hjyecoCKT8OX174#PPA58,M1| title=The Routledge Atlas of the Arab-Israeli Conflict| author=]| publisher=Routledge| year=2005| isbn=0415359015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1192380626879&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull| title=An 'infidel' in Israel| author=Lela Gilbert| publisher=]| date=], ]| quote="t.-Gen. Mustafa Hafez, was appointed by president Gamal Abdel Nasser to command Egyptian army intelligence. Hafez founded Palestinian fedayeen units to launch terrorist raids across Israel's southern border. Between 1951 and 1956, the fedayeen killed some 400 Israelis."}}</ref>


In an article in ], Lela Gilbert writes that General Mustafa Hafez was appointed by President Nasser to command Egyptian army intelligence and that he founded the Palestinian fedayeen units in Egypt "to launch terrorist raids across Israel's southern border."<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1192380626879&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull| title=An 'infidel' in Israel| author=Lela Gilbert| publisher=]| date=], ]}}</ref> Palestinian fedayeen also operated from bases in Jordan. While the attacks violated the 1949 Armistice Agreements prohibiting hostilities by paramilitary forces, it was Israel that was condemned by the ] for its counterattacks.<ref>{{cite web |publisher= jewishvirtuallibrary.org | title= Fedayeen |url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Terrorism/Fedayeen.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| url=http://books.google.com/books?id=cT16EWF9I4cC&pg=PA58&lpg=PA58&dq=fedayeen+israel&source=web&ots=mJR38hIH9V&sig=yGxT564et617hjyecoCKT8OX174#PPA58,M1| title=The Routledge Atlas of the Arab-Israeli Conflict| author=]| publisher=Routledge| year=2005| isbn=0415359015}}</ref>
==Fedayeen attacks in the 1950s==


==Fedayeen from the 1960s onward==
Israel's complaint that the fedayeen attacks violated the 1949 UN Armistice Agreement forbidding hostilities by paramilitary forces were ignored. During 1951-1956, hundreds of fedayeen attacks were carried out against Israelis and over 400 were killed and 900 wounded seriously.


During the mid and late 1960s, a number of independent Palestinian fedyaeen groups emerged who sought to bring about "the liberation of all ] through a Palestinian armed struggle."<ref name=Ismael>{{cite book|title=''The Communist Movement In The Arab World''|author=Tareq Y. Ismael|publisher=]|year=2005|page=76|isbn=041534851X}}</ref> According to Jamal R. Nasser, the very first incursion by this set of fedayeen fighters took place on ] ] when a Palestinian commando infiltrated Israel to plant explosives that destroyed a section of pipeline designed to divert water from the ] into Israel.<ref name=Nasser>{{cite book|title=''Globalization and Terrorism: The Migration of Dreams and Nightmares''|author=Jamal R. Nassar|page=50|year=2005|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=074252504X}}</ref>
From 1950 the attacks became much more violent and included deaths of Israeli citizens in nearby cities. The Israeli government cites dozens of these attacks as "Major Arab Terrorist Attacks against Israelis prior to the 1967 ]".
<ref>{{cite web | publisher=mfa.gov.il | title= Major terror attacks|url=http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Facts+About+Israel/Israel+in+Maps/1948-1967-+Major+Terror+Attacks.htm}}</ref> <ref>{{cite web | publisher=mfa.gov.il | title= Palestinina terror|url=http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-+Obstacle+to+Peace/Palestinian+terror+before+2000/Which+Came+First-+Terrorism+or+Occupation+-+Major.htm}}</ref> Between 1949 and 1956, 400 Israelis were killed and 900 wounded by fedayeen attacks. <ref>{{cite web | publisher=jafi.org | title=Map|url=http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/maps/fed.html}}</ref> In 1955, 260 Israeli citizens were killed or wounded by fedayeen". <ref>{{cite web | publisher= adl.org | title=Record | url=http://www.adl.org/ISRAEL/Record/sinai.asp}}</ref>


Fedayeen groups began joining the ] (PLO), beginning in 1968.<ref name=Gresh>{{cite book|title=''The New A-Z of the Middle East''|author=Alain Gresh and Dominique Vidal|publisher=I.B.Tauris|year=2004|isbn=1860643264}}</ref> While the PLO was the "unifying framework" under which these groups operated, each fedayeen organization had its own leader and armed forces and retained autonomy in operations.<ref name=Gresh/> Of the dozen or so fedayeen groups under the framework of the PLO, the most important were the ] (PFLP) headed by ]), the ] (DFLP) headed by Nawaf Hawatmeh), the PFLP-General Command headed by ], ] (affiliated with Syria), and the ] (formerly controlled from ]).<ref name=Gresh/>
The calculated acts of fedayeen terror, supported by the Arab countries, contributed eventually to the outbreak of the ].<ref>{{cite book| url=http://books.google.com/books?id=YUthqHRF-m8C&pg=PA420&lpg=PA420&dq=fedayeen+israel&source=web&ots=mz59gfgQCx&sig=MTOTo5reQeJnWZKeqnM7l9ZoSYg| title=Israel's Border Wars, 1949-1956: Arab Infiltration, Israeli Retaliation, and| author=]| publisher=Oxford University Press| year=1993| isbn=0198292627}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | publisher=palestinefacts.org | title= What happened during the period of the fedayeen attacks on Israel in the 1950s?|url=http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1948to1967_fedayeen.php}}</ref>


===Jordan===
==Israel establishes Unit 101==
{{Main|Unit 101}}


After the influx of a second wave of Palestinian refugees from the 1967 war, fedayeen bases in Jordan began to proliferate and there were increased fedayeen attacks on Israel.<ref name=Hinchcliffe/> According to Milton-Edwards and Hinchcliffe, the increasing ferocity of Israeli reprisals conducted against Jordanians and not Palestinians for the fedayeen raids into Israel became a growing cause of concern for the Jordanian authorities.<ref name=Hinchcliffe/>
In 1953, ] ] created ], to retaliate against a spate of Arab ''fedayeen'' violence against Israelis. Its commander was Major ]. Unit 101 was disbanded in late 1955.


The ] in 1968 turned the Palestinian fedayeen into "daring heroes of the ]".<ref name=Schulz>{{cite book|title=''The Palestinian Diaspora: Formation of Identities and Politics of Homeland''|author=Helena Lindholm Schulz and Juliane Hammer|page=120|publisher=]|year=2003|isbn=0415268206}}</ref> Though the fedayeen lost the battle against Israeli forces at the Jordanian village of ], they did inflict much heavier casualties on Israel than had been expected. Thus, Karameh became what ] has termed the "foundation myth" of the Palestinian commando movement, whereby "failure against overwhelming odds brilliantly narrated as as heroic triumph."<ref name=Schulz/>
==Continuation==


The confidence of the Palestinian fedayeen had been bolstered by the battle of Karameh, recruitment increased, and the ruling ] authorities in Jordan were alarmed by the activities of the PLO who had established a "state within a state", providing military training and social welfare services to the Palestinian population while bypassing the Jordanian authorities.<ref name=Hinchcliffe>{{cite book|title=''Jordan: A Hashemite Legacy''|author=Beverley Milton-Edwards and Peter Hinchcliffe|year=2001|pages=46-48|publisher=]|isbn=0415267269}}</ref> Palestinian criticism of the poor performance of the ], the King's army, was an insult to both the King and the regime.<ref name=Hinchcliffe/> Further, many Palestinian fedayeen groups of the radical left, such as the PFLP, "called for the overthrow of the Arab monarchies, including the Hashemite regime in Jordan, arguing that this was an essential first step toward the liberation of Palestine."<ref name=Hinchcliffe/>
Even after the attacks against Egypt by France, the United Kingdom and Israel during the 1956 ], Egypt under President Nasser continued supporting fedayeen insurrections among Palestinianss against Israel: Nasser encouraged fedayeen, or Palestinian guerrilla attacks on Israel from the Gaza strip and elsewhere. At this point it became part of the origin of the ] in 1964 as the fedayeen/PLO declared their intent to eradicate Israel. <ref>{{cite web | publisher= www.bc.edu | title= The Cold War: International Rivalry Promotes Conflict | url=http://www.bc.edu/research/cjl/meta-elements/texts/cjrelations/resources/education/Israel_Palestine/cold_war.htm}}</ref>


In the first week of September in 1970, PFLP forces highjacked three airplanes (British, Swiss and German) at ] in Jordan. The airplanes were evaucated and destroyed on the tarmac, and the three European governments were forced to free PFLP militants that had been held in European jails to secure the release of their citizens.<ref name=Hinchcliffe/>
==After 1967==


On ] ], King Hussein ordered his troops to strike at and eliminate the fedayeen network in Jordan.<ref name=Hinchcliffe/> Syrian troops intervened to support the fedayeen but were turned back by Jordanian armour.<ref name=Hinchcliffe/> Thousands were killed in the initial battle, and thousands more in the security crackdown that followed, and by the summer of 1971, the Palestinian fedayeen network in Jordan had been effectively dismantled with most of the fighters setting up base in southern Lebanon instead.<ref name=Hinchcliffe/>

The ] writer ] who visited Palestinian fedayeen at their bases in ] between 1970 and 1972, "memorialized what he perceived to be their bravery, idealism, flexibility of identity, and heroism" in his novel ''Prisoner of Love'' (1986).<ref name=Rubenberg>{{cite book|title=''The Palestinians: In Search of a Just Peace''|author=Cheryl Rubenberg|year=2003|page=40|publisher=Lynne Rienner Publishers|isbn=1588262251}}</ref>

===Gaza Strip===

The emergence of a fedayeen movement in the Gaza Strip was catalyzed by Israel's occupation of the territory during the ].<ref name=Milton/> Palestinian fedayeen from Gaza "waged a mini-war" against Israel for three years before the movement was crushed by the Israeli military in 1971 under the orders of then Defense Minister, ].<ref name=Milton/>

Palestinians in Gaza were proud of their role in establishing a fedayeen movement there when no such movement existed in the ] at the time. The fighters were housed in refugee camps or hid in the ] groves of wealthy Gazan landowners, carrying out raids against Israeli soldiers from these sites.<ref name=Milton/>

The most active of the fedayeen groups in Gaza was the ] (PFLP) who enjoyed instant popularity among the secularised, ] population who had come of age during Egyptian President Nasser's rule of Gaza. The emergence of armed struggle as the liberation strategy for the Gaza Strip reflected larger ideological changes within the Palestinian national movement toward political violence. This armed struggle was conceived of in secular terms with exhortations to take up arms not as part of a jihad, but in order to "free the oppressed from the ] ] regime."<ref name=Milton/> The "radical left" dominated the political scene, and the overarching slogan of the time was, "We will liberate Palestine first, then the rest of the Arab world."<ref name=Milton/>

During Israel's 1971 military campaign to contain or control the fedayeen, an estimated 15,000 suspected fighters were rounded up and ]ed to detention camps in Abu Zneima and Abu Rudeis in the ]. Tens of homes were ] by Israeli forces, rendering hundreds of people homeless. According to Milton-Edwards, "This security policy successfully instilled terror in the camps and wiped out the fedayeen bases."<ref name=Milton/> It is also paved the way for the rise of the Islamic movement, which began organizing as early as 1969-1970, led by ].

===Lebanon===

], supported by ] and ] entered Lebanon on ] ] in an operation code-named "Peace for Galilee", encountering "fierce resistance" from the Palestinian fedayeen there.<ref name=Tanca>{{cite book|title=''Foreign Armed Intervention in Internal Conflict''|author=Antonio Tanca|year=1993|page=178|publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers|isbn=0792324269}}</ref> Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon and its siege and constant shelling of the capital ], eventually forced the Palestinian fedayeen to accept an internationally brokered agreement that moved them out of Lebanon to different places in the Arab world.<ref name=Nasser/> The headquarters of the PLO was moved out of Lebanon to ] at this time.<ref name=Nasser/>

During a ] ] press conference at the ], ] stated that, "] was the first Palestinian fedayeen who carried his sword along the path on which the Palestinian today carry their cross."<ref name=Yeor>{{cite book|title=''The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians Under Islam''|author=]|publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson Univeristy Press|page=145|year=1985|isbn=0838632629}}</ref>


==See also== ==See also==
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==References== ==References==
{{Reflist}} {{Reflist}}



==External links== ==External links==
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* OnWar.com * OnWar.com


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Revision as of 13:02, 6 January 2008

Palestinian fedayeen (from the Arabic fidā'ī, plural fidā'īyun, فدائيون: meaning, "freedom fighter(s)" or "self-sacrificers") is a term used to refer to fedayeen (i.e. militants or guerrillas) from among the Palestinian people. Considered "freedom fighters" by most Palestinians, most Israelis consider them to be "terrorists".

The Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements defines fedayeen as "Palestinian resistance fighters" and they have been considered symbols of the Palestinian national movement. Drawing inspiration from guerrilla movements in Vietnam, China, and Latin America, the fedayeen have always been portrayed in a vanguard role. Beverly Milton-Edwards describes them as "modern revolutionaries fighting for national liberation, not religious salvation," and distinguishes them from mujahaddin (i.e. "fighters of the jihad for God").

Early fedayeen attacks

The first attacks by Palestinian fedayeen were launched by Palestinian refugees of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, living in refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and Syria. While the Palestinian fedayeen were generally supported by those governments, in some cases they came into conflict with them.

According to Orna Almog, the very first attack by Palestinian fedayeen was launched by refugee fighters from Syrian territory in 1951, although the majority of the attacks between 1951 and 1953 were launched by Palestinian refugees from Jordanian territory. These early fedayeen attacks were incursions on a limited scale. Yeshoshfat Harkabi, former head of Israeli military intelligence, stated that these early attacks were often motivated by economic reasons, with Palestinians crossing the border into Israel to, for example, harvest crops in their former villages. Fedayeen operations on a larger scale began to mounted from 1954 onwards from Egyptian territory.

Israel responded to these early attacks by conducting cross border operations in both Egypt and Jordan, "in order to 'teach' the Arab leaders that the Israeli government saw them as responsible for these activities, even if they had not directly conducted them." Moshe Dayan felt that retaliatory action by Israel was the only way to convince Arab countries that for the safety of their own citizens, they should work to stop fedayeen infiltrations. Said Dayan, "We are not able to protect every man, but we can prove that the price for Jewish blood is high."

Between 1951 and 1956, 400 Israelis were killed and 900 wounded by fedayeen attacks. Dozens of these attacks are today cited by the Israeli government as "Major Arab Terrorist Attacks against Israelis prior to the 1967 Six-Day War". Israel's complaints that the fedayeen attacks violated the 1949 Armistice Agreements forbidding hostilities by paramilitary forces were ignored.

Israel establishes Unit 101

Main article: Unit 101

In 1953, Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion created Unit 101, to retaliate against a spate of Arab fedayeen violence against Israelis. Its commander was Major Ariel Sharon. Unit 101 was disbanded in late 1955.

Involvement of President Nasser and Egyptian intelligence

According to the Jewish Virtual Library, President Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918 - 1970) adopted a new tactic in 1955 to prosecute Egypt's war with Israel, which he openly announced in a speech on 31 August:

Egypt has decided to dispatch her heroes, the disciples of Pharaoh and the sons of Islam and they will cleanse the land of Palestine....There will be no peace on Israel's border because we demand vengeance, and vengeance is Israel's death.

In 1955, 260 Israeli citizens were killed or wounded by fedayeen". Benny Morris writes that the calculated acts of fedayeen terror, supported by the Arab countries, eventually contributed to the outbreak of the Sinai Campaign.

In an article in The Jerusalem Post, Lela Gilbert writes that General Mustafa Hafez was appointed by President Nasser to command Egyptian army intelligence and that he founded the Palestinian fedayeen units in Egypt "to launch terrorist raids across Israel's southern border." Palestinian fedayeen also operated from bases in Jordan. While the attacks violated the 1949 Armistice Agreements prohibiting hostilities by paramilitary forces, it was Israel that was condemned by the United Nations Security Council for its counterattacks.

Fedayeen from the 1960s onward

During the mid and late 1960s, a number of independent Palestinian fedyaeen groups emerged who sought to bring about "the liberation of all Palestine through a Palestinian armed struggle." According to Jamal R. Nasser, the very first incursion by this set of fedayeen fighters took place on 1 January 1965 when a Palestinian commando infiltrated Israel to plant explosives that destroyed a section of pipeline designed to divert water from the Jordan River into Israel.

Fedayeen groups began joining the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), beginning in 1968. While the PLO was the "unifying framework" under which these groups operated, each fedayeen organization had its own leader and armed forces and retained autonomy in operations. Of the dozen or so fedayeen groups under the framework of the PLO, the most important were the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) headed by George Habash), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) headed by Nawaf Hawatmeh), the PFLP-General Command headed by Ahmed Jibril, As-Sa'iqa (affiliated with Syria), and the Arab Liberation Front (formerly controlled from Baghdad).

Jordan

After the influx of a second wave of Palestinian refugees from the 1967 war, fedayeen bases in Jordan began to proliferate and there were increased fedayeen attacks on Israel. According to Milton-Edwards and Hinchcliffe, the increasing ferocity of Israeli reprisals conducted against Jordanians and not Palestinians for the fedayeen raids into Israel became a growing cause of concern for the Jordanian authorities.

The Battle of Karameh in 1968 turned the Palestinian fedayeen into "daring heroes of the Arab world". Though the fedayeen lost the battle against Israeli forces at the Jordanian village of Karameh, they did inflict much heavier casualties on Israel than had been expected. Thus, Karameh became what Rashid Khalidi has termed the "foundation myth" of the Palestinian commando movement, whereby "failure against overwhelming odds brilliantly narrated as as heroic triumph."

The confidence of the Palestinian fedayeen had been bolstered by the battle of Karameh, recruitment increased, and the ruling Hashemite authorities in Jordan were alarmed by the activities of the PLO who had established a "state within a state", providing military training and social welfare services to the Palestinian population while bypassing the Jordanian authorities. Palestinian criticism of the poor performance of the Arab Legion, the King's army, was an insult to both the King and the regime. Further, many Palestinian fedayeen groups of the radical left, such as the PFLP, "called for the overthrow of the Arab monarchies, including the Hashemite regime in Jordan, arguing that this was an essential first step toward the liberation of Palestine."

In the first week of September in 1970, PFLP forces highjacked three airplanes (British, Swiss and German) at Dawson's field in Jordan. The airplanes were evaucated and destroyed on the tarmac, and the three European governments were forced to free PFLP militants that had been held in European jails to secure the release of their citizens.

On 16 September 1970, King Hussein ordered his troops to strike at and eliminate the fedayeen network in Jordan. Syrian troops intervened to support the fedayeen but were turned back by Jordanian armour. Thousands were killed in the initial battle, and thousands more in the security crackdown that followed, and by the summer of 1971, the Palestinian fedayeen network in Jordan had been effectively dismantled with most of the fighters setting up base in southern Lebanon instead.

The French writer Jean Genet who visited Palestinian fedayeen at their bases in Jordan between 1970 and 1972, "memorialized what he perceived to be their bravery, idealism, flexibility of identity, and heroism" in his novel Prisoner of Love (1986).

Gaza Strip

The emergence of a fedayeen movement in the Gaza Strip was catalyzed by Israel's occupation of the territory during the 1967 war. Palestinian fedayeen from Gaza "waged a mini-war" against Israel for three years before the movement was crushed by the Israeli military in 1971 under the orders of then Defense Minister, Ariel Sharon.

Palestinians in Gaza were proud of their role in establishing a fedayeen movement there when no such movement existed in the West Bank at the time. The fighters were housed in refugee camps or hid in the citrus groves of wealthy Gazan landowners, carrying out raids against Israeli soldiers from these sites.

The most active of the fedayeen groups in Gaza was the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) who enjoyed instant popularity among the secularised, socialist population who had come of age during Egyptian President Nasser's rule of Gaza. The emergence of armed struggle as the liberation strategy for the Gaza Strip reflected larger ideological changes within the Palestinian national movement toward political violence. This armed struggle was conceived of in secular terms with exhortations to take up arms not as part of a jihad, but in order to "free the oppressed from the Zionist colonial regime." The "radical left" dominated the political scene, and the overarching slogan of the time was, "We will liberate Palestine first, then the rest of the Arab world."

During Israel's 1971 military campaign to contain or control the fedayeen, an estimated 15,000 suspected fighters were rounded up and deported to detention camps in Abu Zneima and Abu Rudeis in the Sinai. Tens of homes were demolished by Israeli forces, rendering hundreds of people homeless. According to Milton-Edwards, "This security policy successfully instilled terror in the camps and wiped out the fedayeen bases." It is also paved the way for the rise of the Islamic movement, which began organizing as early as 1969-1970, led by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

Lebanon

Israeli armoured artillery and infantry forces, supported by air force and naval units entered Lebanon on 6 June 1982 in an operation code-named "Peace for Galilee", encountering "fierce resistance" from the Palestinian fedayeen there. Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon and its siege and constant shelling of the capital Beirut, eventually forced the Palestinian fedayeen to accept an internationally brokered agreement that moved them out of Lebanon to different places in the Arab world. The headquarters of the PLO was moved out of Lebanon to Tunis at this time.

During a 2 September 1982 press conference at the United Nations, Yasser Arafat stated that, "Jesus Christ was the first Palestinian fedayeen who carried his sword along the path on which the Palestinian today carry their cross."

See also

References

  1. Mohammed El-Nawawy (2002). The Israeli-Egyptian Peace Process in the Reporting of Western Journalists. Inc NetLibrary. p. 49. ISBN 1567505457.
  2. Tony Rea and John Wright (1993). The Arab-Israeli Conflict. Oxford University Press. p. 43. ISBN 019917170X.
  3. Milton Glaser and Mirko Ilic (2005). The Design of Dissent. Rockport Publishers. ISBN 1592531172.
  4. Edmund Jan Osmanczyk (2002). Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements. Taylor & Francis. p. 702. ISBN 0415939216.
  5. ^ Beverley Milton-Edwards (1996). Islamic Politics in Palestine. I.B.Tauris. pp. 94–95. ISBN 1860644759.
  6. While the fallen soldiers of both mujahaddin and fedayeen are called shahid (i.e. "martyrs") by Palestinians, Milton nevertheless contends that it would be political and religious blasphemy to call the "leftist fighters" of the fedayeen, mujahaddin.
  7. Howard Sachar, History of Israel, p. 450. cited at "Fedayeen Raids 1951 -1956". jafi.org.
  8. ^ Orna Almog (2003). Britain, Israel, and the United States, 1955-1958: Beyond Suez. Routledge. p. 20. ISBN 0714652466.
  9. "Map". jafi.org.
  10. "Major terror attacks". mfa.gov.il.
  11. "Palestinina terror". mfa.gov.il.
  12. "fedayeen". jewishvirtuallibrary.org.
  13. "Record". adl.org.
  14. Benny Morris (1993). Israel's Border Wars, 1949-1956: Arab Infiltration, Israeli Retaliation, and. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198292627.
  15. "What happened during the period of the fedayeen attacks on Israel in the 1950s?". palestinefacts.org.
  16. Lela Gilbert (October 23, 2007). "An 'infidel' in Israel". The Jerusalem Post. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. "Fedayeen". jewishvirtuallibrary.org.
  18. Martin Gilbert (2005). The Routledge Atlas of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Routledge. ISBN 0415359015.
  19. Tareq Y. Ismael (2005). The Communist Movement In The Arab World. Routledge. p. 76. ISBN 041534851X.
  20. ^ Jamal R. Nassar (2005). Globalization and Terrorism: The Migration of Dreams and Nightmares. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 50. ISBN 074252504X.
  21. ^ Alain Gresh and Dominique Vidal (2004). The New A-Z of the Middle East. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 1860643264.
  22. ^ Beverley Milton-Edwards and Peter Hinchcliffe (2001). Jordan: A Hashemite Legacy. Routledge. pp. 46–48. ISBN 0415267269.
  23. ^ Helena Lindholm Schulz and Juliane Hammer (2003). The Palestinian Diaspora: Formation of Identities and Politics of Homeland. Routledge. p. 120. ISBN 0415268206.
  24. Cheryl Rubenberg (2003). The Palestinians: In Search of a Just Peace. Lynne Rienner Publishers. p. 40. ISBN 1588262251.
  25. Antonio Tanca (1993). Foreign Armed Intervention in Internal Conflict. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 178. ISBN 0792324269.
  26. Bat Ye'or (1985). The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians Under Islam. Fairleigh Dickinson Univeristy Press. p. 145. ISBN 0838632629.

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