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| '''Palestinian fedayeen''' (from the ] ''fidā'ī'', plural ''fidā'īyun'', فدائيون: |
'''Palestinian fedayeen''' (from the ] ''fidā'ī'', plural ''fidā'īyun'', فدائيون: "one who is ready to sacrifice his life") is a term used to refer to militant ]s from among the ], including ]s. Considered to be "]" amongst 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". 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> | ||
| ⚫ | In attacks launched by Palestinian fedayeen from ], ], ], and ] on ] between 1949 and 1958, 1,300 ]s were killed or wounded. 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> | ||
| 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== | ||
| ==Emergence of the fedayeen== | |||
| President ] (1918 - 1970) openly deployed forces whom he called "fedayeen" in a 1955 call to arms against Israel: | |||
| ⚫ | |||
| ⚫ | :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> | ||
| According to Orna Almog, the very first attack by Palestinian fedayeen was launched by refugee fighters from Syrian territory in 1951, though the majority of the attacks between 1951 and 1953 were launched by 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 be mounted from 1954 onwards from Egyptian territory.<ref name=Almog/> | |||
| 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 1953, ] ] created ] to retaliate against the fedayeen. Its commander was Major ]. Cross-border operations were conducted 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/> | |||
| ==Fedayeen attacks in the 1950s== | |||
| The ] reports that between 1951 and 1956, 400 Israelis were killed and 900 wounded in fedayeen attacks. <ref>{{cite web | publisher=] | 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= |
||
| 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. | |||
| ⚫ | |||
| 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 ]". | |||
| According to Martin Gilbert, who defines the fedayeen as "Palestinian terrorist groups", towards the end of 1954, the Egyptian government supervised the formal establishment of these groups in Gaza and the northeastern Sinai.<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> Lela Gilbert in ] writes that General Mustafa Hafez, appointed by Egyptian President ] (1918 - 1970) to command Egyptian army intelligence, was the one who 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> | |||
| ⚫ | <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> | ||
| ⚫ | 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> | ||
| The Jewish Virtual Library illustrates the adoption of this new tactic by quoting an excerpt of a speech delivered by President Nasser on ] ]: | |||
| ==Israel establishes Unit 101== | |||
| ⚫ | :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= |
||
| {{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. | |||
| ⚫ | |||
| ==Continuation== | |||
| ==From the 1960s until the first intifada== | |||
| 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 Palestinians 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> | |||
| ⚫ | 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> |
||
| ==After 1967== | |||
| 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/> | |||
| ⚫ | 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> | ||
| ===West Bank=== | |||
| In the late 1960s, attempts were made to organize fedayeen resistance cells in the ]. The mobilization that did occur was based to a large extent in the refugee population of the West Bank.<ref name=Hammer>{{cite book|title=''The Palestinian Diaspora: Formation of Identities and Politics of Homeland''|author=Helena Lindholm Schulz and Juliane Hammer|year=2003|page=68|publisher=]|isbn=0415268206}}</ref> The stony and empty terrain of the West Bank mountains made the fedayeen easy to spot and this, coupled with a harsh regime of ] deployed by Israeli forces against the families of fighters, resulted in the fedayeen being pushed out of the West Bank altogether within a few months.<ref name=Braizat/> Arafat reportedly escaped arrest in ] by jumping out a window as Israeli police came in the front door.<ref name=Braizat/> Having been pushed out of the West Bank and prevented from operating in Syria and Egypt, the fedayeen concentrated on Jordan.<ref name=Braizat/> | |||
| ===Jordan=== | |||
| After the influx of a second wave of ] from the 1967 war, fedayeen bases in Jordan began to proliferate and there were increased fedayeen attacks on Israel.<ref name=Hinchcliffe/> Fedayeen fighters launched ineffective bazooka-shelling attacks on Israeli targets across the ] and "brisk and indiscriminate" Israeli retaliations destroyed Jordanian villages, farms and installations, causing 100,000 people to flee the ] eastward.<ref name=Braizat>{{cite book|title=''The Jordanian-Palestinian Relationship: The Bankruptcy of the Confederal Idea''|author=Musa S. Braizat|year=1998|publisher=British Academic Press|page=138|isbn=1860642918}}</ref> 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/> | |||
| 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/> | |||
| 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/> | |||
| 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/> | |||
| 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 which came to known as ], 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=== | |||
| On ] ], the Lebanese government signed the ] which granted Palestinians the right to launch attacks on Israel from southern Lebanon in coordination with the Lebanese army.<ref name=Tanca/> After the expulsion of the Palestinian fedayeen from Jordan and a series of Israeli raids on Lebanon, the Lebanese government granted the PLO the right to defend Palestinian refugee camps there and to possess heavy weaponry.<ref name=Tanca/> After the outbreak of 1975 ], the PLO increasingly began to act once again as a "state within a state".<ref name=Tanca/> Israel invaded southern Lebanon in the ], occupying a 20 kilometer wide area there to put an end to Palestinian attacks on Israel, but fedayeen missile attacks on villages in northern Israel continued.<ref name=Tanca/> | |||
| ], supported by ] and ] again 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 ] in the ], 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 Palestinians 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> | |||
| ==The first intifada onwards== | |||
| During the ], armed violence on the part of Palestinians was kept to a minimum, in favor of mass demonstrations and acts of ].<ref name=Nassar/> However, the issue of the role of armed struggle did not die out altogether.<ref name=Nassar/> Those Palestinian groups affiliated with the PLO and based outside of historic ], such as rebels within ] and the PFLP-GC, used the lack of fedayeen operations as their main weapon of criticism against the PLO leadership at the time.<ref name=Nassar/> The PFLP and DFLP even made a few abortive attempts at fedayeen operations inside Israel.<ref name=Nassar/> According to Jamal Raji Nassar and Roger Heacock, "<blockquote> at least parts of the Palestinian left sacrificed all to the golden calf of armed struggle when measuring the degree of revolutionary commitment by the number of fedayeen operations, instead of focusing on the positions of power they doubtless held inside the Occupied Territories and which were major assests in struggles over a particular political line."<ref name=Nassar>{{cite book|title=''Intifada: Palestine at the Crossroads''|author=Jamal Raji Nassar and Roger Heacock|year=1990|pages=221-222|publisher=Praeger/Greenwood|isbn=027593411X}}</ref></blockquote> | |||
| During the first intifada, but particularly after the signing of the ], the fedayeen steadily lost ground to the emerging forces of the ], represented initially and most prominently by Hamas.<ref name=Burgat/> The fedayeen lost their position as a political force and the secular nationalist movement that had represented the first generation of the Palestinian resistance became instead a symbolic, cultural force that was seen by some as having failed in its duties.<ref name=Burgat>{{cite book|title=''Face to Face With Political Islam''|author=François Burgat|page=117|year=2003|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=1860642136}}</ref> | |||
| ==Philosophical grounding and objectives== | |||
| The objectives of the fedayeen were articulated in the statements and literature they produced, which were consistent with reference to the aim of destroying ].<ref name=Freedman>{{cite book|title=''The Intifada: Its Impact on Israel, the Arab World, and the Superpowers''|author=Robert Owen Freedman et al.|year=1991|pages=64-66|publisher=]|isbn=0813010403}}</ref> In 1970, the stated aim of establishing Palestine as "a secular, democratic, nonsectarian state" was for some fedayeen groups "merely a slogan for assuaging world opinion," while others strove "to give the concept meaningful content."<ref name=Freedman/> Prior to 1974, the fedayeen position was that any ] who renounced Zionism could remain in the Palestinian state to be created. After 1974, the issue became less clear and there were suggestions that only those Jews who were in Palestine prior to "the Zionist invasion", alternatively placed at 1947 or 1917, would be able to remain.<ref name=Freedman/> | |||
| In ''The Intifada:Its Impact on Israel, the Arab World, and the Superpowers'', Bard O'Neill writes that the fedayeen attempted to study and borrow from all of the ] models available, but that their publications and statements show a particular affinity for the ]n, ]n, ], and ] experiences.<ref name=Freedman/> | |||
| ==See also== | ==See also== | ||
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| ==External links== | ==External links== | ||
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Revision as of 18:07, 6 January 2008
Palestinian fedayeen (from the Arabic fidā'ī, plural fidā'īyun, فدائيون: "one who is ready to sacrifice his life") is a term used to refer to militant guerrillas from among the Palestinian people, including Palestinian refugees. Considered to be "freedom fighters" amongst Palestinians, most Israelis consider them to be "terrorists". The Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements defines "Fedayeen" as "Palestinian resistance fighters".
In attacks launched by Palestinian fedayeen from Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and Syria on Israel between 1949 and 1958, 1,300 Israelis were killed or wounded. While the Palestinian fedayeen were generally supported by those governments, in some cases they came into conflict with them.
Involvement of President Nasser and Egyptian intelligence
President Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918 - 1970) openly deployed forces whom he called "fedayeen" in a 1955 call to arms against Israel:
- 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.
Scholars have noted that the fedayeen were trained and equipped by Egyptian intelligence 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 1949 Armistice Agreements prohibiting hostilities by paramilitary forces, but it was Israel that was condemned by the UN Security Council for its counterattacks.
Fedayeen attacks in the 1950s
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.
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 Six-Day War". Between 1949 and 1956, 400 Israelis were killed and 900 wounded by fedayeen attacks. In 1955, 260 Israeli citizens were killed or wounded by fedayeen".
The calculated acts of fedayeen terror, supported by the Arab countries, contributed eventually to the outbreak of the Sinai Campaign.
Israel establishes Unit 101
Main article: Unit 101In 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.
Continuation
Even after the attacks against Egypt by France, the United Kingdom and Israel during the 1956 Suez Crisis, Egypt under President Nasser continued supporting fedayeen insurrections among Palestinians 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 PLO in 1964 as the fedayeen/PLO declared their intent to eradicate Israel.
After 1967
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."
See also
- 1947 UN Partition Plan
- 1948 Arab-Israeli War
- Ahmad Shukeiri (appointed as first Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization by a summit of Arab leaders in 1964)
- Arab-Israeli conflict
- History of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty
- Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- Occupation of the Gaza Strip by Egypt
- Palestinian Liberation Army (military wing of PLO headed by Ahmad Shukeiri in 1964, under control of Egypt's President Gamal Abdel Nasser)
- Palestinian National Covenant
- Palestinian political violence
- Peace process in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- Proposals for a Palestinian state
References
- Milton Glaser and Mirko Ilic (2005). The Design of Dissent. Rockport Publishers. ISBN 1592531172.
- Edmund Jan Osmanczyk (2002). Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements. Taylor & Francis. p. 702. ISBN 0415939216.
- Howard Sachar, History of Israel, p. 450. cited at "Fedayeen Raids 1951 -1956". jafi.org.
- "fedayeen". jewishvirtuallibrary.org.
- "Fedayeen". jewishvirtuallibrary.org.
- Martin Gilbert (2005). The Routledge Atlas of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Routledge. ISBN 0415359015.
- Lela Gilbert (October 23, 2007). "An 'infidel' in Israel". The Jerusalem Post.
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.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - "Major terror attacks". mfa.gov.il.
- "Palestinina terror". mfa.gov.il.
- "Map". jafi.org.
- "Record". adl.org.
- Benny Morris (1993). Israel's Border Wars, 1949-1956: Arab Infiltration, Israeli Retaliation, and. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198292627.
- "What happened during the period of the fedayeen attacks on Israel in the 1950s?". palestinefacts.org.
- "The Cold War: International Rivalry Promotes Conflict". www.bc.edu.
- Tareq Y. Ismael (2005). The Communist Movement In The Arab World. Routledge. p. 76. ISBN 041534851X.
External links
- Map of Fedayeen Raids
- Fedayeen
- The Cold War
- Middle East: The Fedayeen Revisited Time June 13, 1969
- Cease-Fire Strains Time June 24, 1974
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