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Also see
Fatah
Source:
International Policy Institute for
Counter-Terrorism
The Tanzim is the armed wing of the Fatah, the largest faction of the
Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) led by Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat. The Tanzim acts as paramilitary counter-balance to the military wings of
the Palestinian opposition groups, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The
organization also serves as an informal, unofficial “Palestinian army” which can
engage Israeli security forces and Jewish civilians without officially breaking
signed agreements with Israel.
Tanzim militants have played a significant military role in demonstrations
and clashes with Israeli security forces. The organization has been at the
forefront of the violent demonstrations which erupted in October 2000, when
peace talks with Israel over a final settlement reached a dead end. Its members
were also prominent in two previous cycles of violence: the Nakba riots of May
2000, and the “Tunnel Riots” of September 1996. The 1996 riots broke out after
the Israeli government opened an archeological site in the Old City of Jerusalem
to tourism. Tanzim members participated for the first time alongside Palestinian
policemen in clashed with Israeli security forces. In the Nakba riots, Tanzim
members again played an armed role, shooting at IDF outposts and border
crossings.
The Tanzim have played a leading role in the activities of the "al-Aqsa
Intifada," including carrying out ambushes of civilian vehicles and bombings of
buses in Israeli cities.
The Tanzim was set up in 1995 by Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat
and the Fatah leadership, as a quasi-military force to offset the growing power
of the Palestinian Islamist groups. At least part of Fatah's motivation to
establish such a group came from incidents of armed confrontation with the
opposition groups. In November of 1994, for example, a showdown between PA
security forces and Hamas in Gaza resulted in the death of 13 civilians.
Since its founding, the popularity and influence of the Tanzim on the
Palestinian political scene has steadily grown. The organization is seen as a
popular, grass-roots movement, separate from, but subordinate to, the
Palestinian Authority. It serves as a counterweight to the Islamists, channeling
and focusing the passions of the Palestinian street on behalf of the Palestinian
Authority. It can thus contest the power of the Islamist groups for the hearts
and minds of the Palestinian populace.
However, the Tanzim acts as a counterweight not only to the military might of
Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, but also to that of the Palestinian security
forces. In contrast to the PA security forces, which is the domain of PLO
officials who returned from exile in Arab countries, the Tanzim is the
stronghold of the “insiders.” While, the “outsiders" are seen as corrupt,
interested more in personnel wealth than in the Palestinian cause, the
“insiders” represent the common Palestinian in the street. The Tanzim is very
much a popular, grassroots organization, whose power is based on its leadership
at a community--rather than a national--level. The vast majority of its leaders
are “graduates of the Intifada,” many of whom spent time in Israeli prisons for
their activities. Marwan Barghouti, who heads the Tanzim in the West Bank made
his reputation during the Intifada, finally getting expelled by the Israelis for
his activities.
The Tanzim thus serves a dual function within the Palestinian power
structure. On the one hand, it is essentially loyal to Arafat, and providing
Arafat with a tool for violent confrontation without risking international
condemnation for violating signed agreements. The organization also serves
Arafat as an unofficial Fatah militia to rival the armed wings of the Islamist
groups--a kind of “armed statement of intent” should the Islamists seek to usurp
Arafat’s leadership. The Tanzim is thus one of several tools in Arafat’s “divide
and conquer” strategy against various rival Palestinian power groups. In
particular, this can be seen in the attempts to establish a security mechanism
to compete with Jibril Rajoub’s Preventive Security apparatus. On the other
hand, The Tanzim also acts as a safety valve for popular grievances against the
corrupt, nepotistic and, sometimes, brutal elites that Arafat has encouraged to
sprout around his leadership.
As part of Fatah, the Tanzim adheres to the Palestinian nationalist ideology of
the larger movement, holding its founder Arafat in great esteem and believing
him to embody the Palestinian struggle. However, the Tanzim is very much a
grass-roots organization, setting the insider leadership of the Intifada
generation against what many Palestinians see as the corrupt leadership of the
“exiles,” who returned with Arafat in 1994.
The Tanzim members see themselves as being in the vanguard of the future
Palestinian state. One of the lessons born of Fatah’s long experience with the
governments of the Arab world is the need for self-sufficiency. The other Arabs
were seen as untrustworthy with regard to any real contribution to the
Palestinian cause. This ideology of self-sufficiency has been vigorously
inculcated in the Arab population of the West Bank and Gaza. One of Fatah’s
goals is the indoctrination, through the activities of the Tanzim, of young
people into nationalistic frameworks. The organization works to motivate them to
take an active role in nationalistic and political activities of the Fatah
organization, as well as in demonstrations and military operations. As part of
this indoctrination to self-sufficiency, the organization operates summer camps,
which include weaponry instruction and military training, as well as regular
self-defense, first aid and civil defense courses. The organization’s leadership
claims to have provided military training to thousands of youth people.
Ideologically, the Tanzim can be seen as the heir to the Fatah
Hawks--Arafat’s armed enforcers during the later days of the Intifada--which was
dismantled through a security agreement with Israel in 1995-1996. The Tanzim
maintains a no-compromise position on the peace process, in contrast to the, at
least outwardly, more moderate Palestinian Authority position. Barghouti and the
Tanzim have also been among the leading proponents of a unilateral declaration
of Palestinian statehood. Thus, the organization deflects popular criticism of
what many Palestinians see as Arafat’s willingness to make concessions to
Israel. By taking part in demonstrations and protests against the Israelis, the
organization acts as a popular counterweight to the Islamists, who have always
maintained that there can be no peace as long as Israel exists.
The Tanzim organizational structure is divided into geographical sectors and
subdivided into cells. The Tanzim has branches in every neighborhood, village,
refugee camp and high school. In Ramallah, for example, the
Tanzim has ten neighborhood branches, as well as its main headquarters.
The organization’s strongest branches operate within the universities--Bir Zeit,
Bethlehem and An-Najar, in Nablus.
The organization is actively involved in all central Fatah functions within
the Palestinian population, including political and educational activities. In
addition, the Tanzim conducts military training for Palestinian young people of
all ages, under the leadership of officers of the Palestinian security
apparatus.
Most of the Tanzim membership is made up of adult Palestinian men, aged
20-35. The Tanzim claims to have tens of thousands of members, most of them
residents of the Palestinian autonomous territories, and the vast majority
“graduates of the intifada.” According to local sources, virtually every Fatah
member ever imprisoned in Israel belongs to the Tanzim. However, the
organization’s greatest strength is in the Universities, and the majority of
Tanzim members are either university students or recent graduates. A number of
the Tanzim’s leading members also serve in the Palestinian security
services--many of them in the framework of Jibril Rajoub's security apparatus,
where they serve as field commanders.
Financial and military resources
The Tanzim is financially supported in its day-to-day activities by the
Palestinian Authority. According to the Israeli daily, Yediot Ahronot,
the annual budget of the organization is $2.4 million, allocated directly from
the PA coffers by Yasser Arafat.
It is unclear how much individual fighters are paid, and how the
organization’s budget is divided up. At the beginning of the al-Aqsa Intifada,
in October, the Palestinian Authority was offering large sums to
people--particularly children--willing to risk injury or death to participate in
attacks on Israeli positions. Their families were offered $300 per injury and
$2,000 for anyone killed. This money is believed to have come from Tanzim
allocations.
The Tanzim is in possession of a considerable arsenal of weaponry--from
pistols and assault rifles to machine guns and anti-tank missiles. Some of these
weapons have been given to the Tanzim by the Palestinian Authority, while others
have been purchased from various sources, including from the Israeli underworld.
Israel intelligence sources say that the organization has been stockpiling
expensive hi-tech German MP-5 submachine guns smuggled in to the Autonomy from
Jordan and Egypt.
Arafat is personally involved in the selection of senior leaders in the
organization. However, the individual members of the Tanzim receive their orders
from the local commanders, rather than from Arafat or Palestinian Authority
officials. Although Arafat maintains ongoing links with the Tanzim commanders,
finances the organization and uses its members as a militia in confrontations
with Israel, he can maintain that the activities of the organization are beyond
his control.
Leaders of the Tanzim are mostly “Intifada graduates,” many of whom spent
years in Israeli prisons. These “insiders” are frequently at odds with the
traditional leadership of the Fatah, comprised mostly of “outsiders,” who
arrived from abroad following the Oslo Agreement, and who today represent the
majority among the leaders of the various mechanisms and the senior positions in
the PA. The insiders are of a generation largely excluded by the Fatah
leadership from the top level of Fatah administration. As such, the Tanzim
represents a far more popular, representational leadership than does the Fatah
Revolutionary Council itself. Of the top Tanzim leaders, only one--Marwan
Barghouti--also serves on the Revolutionary Council.
Barghouti is the secretary general of Fatah in the West Bank and the
acknowledged head of the Tanzim. Born in 1959 to one of the leading families of
Ramallah, Barghouti served as student council president at Bir Zeit University
for four years. As a student leader he was one of the organizers of the Intifada
in 1987. He was arrested and spent two years in an Israeli prison, and was then
expelled from the West Bank by Israel. In exile he served at the PLO
headquarters in Tunisia, close to Chairman Arafat, and in 1989 he was elected to
the Fatah Revolutionary Council, becoming its youngest member. Barghouti
returned to the West Bank after the Oslo agreement in 1994. In the first
election for the Palestinian Legislative Council, in 1996, he was elected as a
representative of the Ramallah region and was involved in the foundation of the Tanzim paramilitary forces.
Barghouti is seen as a leader of the people, for the people. He has been
extremely critical of the corruption in the PA executive authority. In June
1998, for example, Barghouti publicly criticized Arafat’s decision to re-appoint
six ministers to his cabinet after they were named by a Palestinian Legislative
Council report on corruption. He has also been critical of the abuses of power
in the PA security apparatus. In a 1998 power-play, units of the PA Military
Intelligence raided the Tanzim offices in Ramallah. In the ensuing demonstration
protesting the break-in, Military Intelligence forces shot at Fatah and Tanzim
members, killing one boy, Wissam Tarifi. The Tanzim responded by demanding the
resignation of Military Intelligence head Musa Arafat, a nephew of Yasser
Arafat. Barghouti’s criticism of the security apparatus was seen by many as
veiled criticism of Arafat.
Barghouti’s rising star has been watched by Arafat’s circles with some
trepidation, and Arafat has made some attempts to “take him down a peg” by
encouraging rivalries. However, Barghouti’s popularity is high, particularly
with the popular constituency of the Tanzim, and as long as he professes loyalty
to Arafat, his value to Arafat still continues to outweigh any potential threat
to his authority.
But all has not been clear sailing for Barghouti. In the last election for
the position for General Secretary of Fatah in the West Bank, Barghouti lost to
his opponent, Hussein Al-Sheikh. Yasser Arafat canceled the results of the
elections. Hussein Al-Sheikh, also a resident of Ramallah, is a political
opponent of Barghouti and competes with him for the leadership of the Tanzim in
the West Bank. Al-Sheikh is supported by Hachem Balawy, who was appointed by
Arafat to reduce the power of Barghouti.
In the Gaza Strip, the Tanzim is led by Ahmad Chiles, who was a minor
activist in the organization until he was recently appointed Fatah secretary in
Gaza. Chiles is a seasoned veteran from the Intifada period, who has a history
of extreme views and incitement to violence. His brother, a senior officer in
the Palestinian security forces, controls the Fatah apparatus in the Gaza Strip.
He is reportedly close to Palestinian security chief, Mohammed Dachlan and works
in close coordination with him.
The Tanzim are active in initiating and organizing demonstrations and
confrontations against Israel, and in “showcase” demonstrations orchestrated for
the benefit of the media. Many of these actions are carried out according to a
well-planned and executed routine. Large numbers of civilians--including
children whose schools were closed to allow their participation--are brought to
IDF positions in chartered buses. The civilian demonstrators advance on the IDF
positions in mass, hurling stones and petrol bombs. Meanwhile, armed Tanzim
members take up positions within the crowd and begin firing on the army
personnel. The soldiers are often forced to return fire at the attackers, who
are well hidden behind their voluntary “human shields.” The Fatah leadership
maintains that the international support for the Palestinian cause gained in
this way far outweighs the loss of life incurred.
In addition to orchestrating the more “photogenic” popular activities, Tanzim
members have also been at the forefront of the tactical shooting attacks against
IDF guard posts and border crossings, as well as bombings of IDF positions and
patrols. This guerilla activity is augmented by terrorist attacks--actions
directed specifically against civilians. Tanzim members have been involved in
the majority of shooting attacks against Israeli vehicles in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip, as well as in several bombings of civilian buses within Israeli
cities. More recently, Tanzim members have participated in “cocktail” cells,
together with members of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. These mixed
cells have been involved in a variety of terrorist actions against Israeli
civilians, including road ambushes and bombings.
Many Tanzim members also operate in the framework of various Palestinian
security apparatuses. The Tanzim thus provides Arafat with a very useful tool in
the confrontation with Israel—a deniable para-military force, which can attack
Israel without the risk of a political backlash. The nebulous links between the
Tanzim and the Arafat’s Palestinian Authority, have led some observers to the
erroneous conclusion that Arafat has only limited control over the organization,
if indeed he controls it at all. By fostering such a misconception, Arafat can
maintain a policy of “talking and shooting” at the same time, while blaming
“uncontrolled elements on both sides” for the ongoing violence.
Source:
Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The Tanzim: Fatah's Fighters on the Ground
(Article by Ronni Shaked, "Yediot Ahronot", Oct 3, 2000, p.
B8)
"The main foci of violence over the weekend were along the
separation lines, mainly near IDF positions. Most of the activity was led by the
men of the Tanzim, the Fatah organization's military wing."
The Tanzim ("organization" in Arabic) is Fatah's field
activity wing. It is a kind of quasi-military militia, whose members see
themselves as being in the vanguard, mainly in initiating and organizing
demonstrations and confrontations against Israel. Additional goals are:
organizing young people in nationalistic frameworks and prime their hearts for
nationalist activities in the framework of the Fatah organization.
The Tanzim have tens of thousands of members, most of them
residents of the [Palestinian Authority] territories, "graduates of the intifada".
Every Fatah member who was imprisoned in Israel belongs to the Tanzim. The
organization is led by former intifada commanders, who serve on the Tanzim's
supreme committee. Marwan Bargouti from Ramallah, who is also a member of the
Legislative Council, is considered the Tanzim's commander.
Members of the Tanzim are under the control of the
organization's commanders, from whom - and not from Arafat or Palestinian
Authority officials - they receive their orders. Arafat maintains ongoing links
with the Tanzim's commanders, finances the organization and uses its members as
a militia in confrontations with Israel, including armed confrontations. This is
why Arafat, to Israel's disdain, does not disarm the Tanzim. Many Tanzim members
operate in the framework of Jibril Rajoub's security apparatus, mainly as field
commanders.
The Tanzim has tens of thousands of weapons of all kinds -
from pistols to machine guns. Some of the weapons have been given to the Tanzim
by the Palestinian Authority, some has been gathered over the years and some has
been purchased from various sources, including from the Israeli underworld.
"When the state is established, the Tanzim will become a political party and it
will hand over its weapons to the state's legal authorities," Marwan Bargouti
has said on numerous occasions.
The Tanzim has branches in every neighborhood, village,
refugee camp and high school. Most of the Tanzim's force are adult Palestinian
men, aged 20-35, in the [Palestinian Authority] territories. The organization's
strongest branches operate within the universities. Therefore, Bethlehem, Bir
Zeit and An-Najah (in Nablus) University students have been at the forefront of
the demonstrations and confrontations. During summer holidays, the organization
operates summer camps, which include weaponry instruction and military training.
The Tanzim also holds self-defense, first aid and civil defense courses on a
regular basis.
Source:
Palestine
Facts
Origins
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.
Activities
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.
History of Violence
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.
- The Tanzim has distributed weapons to their
supporters and organized militias that have open fire on IDF troops during
demonstrations, forcing the soldiers to open fire in the direction of the
demonstrators;
- The Tanzim organizes demonstrations in the
West Bank and Gaza with armed people among the demonstrators who regularly
open fire on IDF troops;
- The Tanzim has distributed inciting flyers
against Israel among the population of the West Bank and Gaza;
- Tanzim officials have held regular meetings
with Hamas leaders, encouraging them to act against Israel;
- The Tanzim has pressured the PA to release
jailed extremists and Hamas activists who committed acts of terror against
Israel.
Tanzim Leaders
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.
Tanzim in Bethlehem
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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