Led by Marwan Barghouti (serving life sentences for murder in Israel)
Military unit
Tanzim (Arabic: التنظيمAl-Tanẓīm, "The Organization") is a militant faction of the Palestinian Fatah movement.
Led by Marwan Barghouti, who is serving life sentences for murder in Israel, it gained prominence during the Second Intifada. Tanzim operates at the community level and has significantly pulled Palestinian support from Islamist groups. It has participated in violent acts against both military and civilian targets, and some of its members have even conducted suicide bombings.
Overview
The Tanzim militia, founded in 1995 by Yasser Arafat and other Fatah leaders to counter Palestinian Islamism,[1] is widely considered to be an armed offshoot of Fatah with its own leadership structure. The acknowledged head of the Tanzim is Marwan Barghouti, who is as of 2017, serving five consecutive life sentences in Israel for murder, and, according to some accounts, has a substantial following among the rejectionist camp which opposes the Interim Agreement (also called Oslo II or Taba) signed on 28 September 1995 with Israel.[2]
The Tanzim is a grass roots organization that operates at the community level. By taking a hardline position against Israel, it has helped siphon Palestinian support from the Islamist groups to the Palestinian Authority and PLO leadership.[2]
Tanzim came to prominence in the street fighting which marked the beginning of the second Palestinian Intifada. Its members tend to be younger than those of other Fatah factions, often having grown up in the post-Oslo era. Many Tanzim members have joined the al-Shaid Yasser Arafat Brigades (formerly the al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades). Tanzim has also recruited female suicide bombers, including Andaleeb Takatka, a 20-year-old Bethlehem woman who detonated an explosive belt at a Jerusalem bus stop in April 2002, killing six Israeli civilians, and injuring sixty.[citation needed]Marwan Barghouti, widely described as heading Tanzim, explicitly condemned terror attacks within Israel, writing "While I, and the Fatah movement to which I belong, strongly oppose attacks and the targeting of civilians inside Israel, our future neighbor, I reserve the right to protect myself, to resist the Israeli occupation of my country and to fight for my freedom."[3]
At the beginning of the Second Intifada, Hussein Abayat, leader of Tanzim in Beit Sahur, was killed in a helicopter attack by the IDF on 9 November 2000. The operation is considered the first time that Israel publicly acknowledged conducting a targeted killing.[4][5] Abayat's assistant Khaled Salahat was severely wounded in the strike.[4][6]
On 15 February 2015, the Israeli army arrested Jamal Abu Lel, charging that he was "the head of" the Tanzim "terrorist organization," running it from the Qalandiya refugee camp while carrying an Israeli permanent resident identity card[7] due to his residing in Kfar Aqab, on the other side of the Jerusalem Airport from Qalandiya.[8] Abu Lel is accused by the Shin Bet of funding and directing terrorist and shooting attacks against Israelis.[7]
Fatah Tanzim have conducted a number of attacks against Israeli civilians and military, including against women and children. Below is a partial list of terrorist attacks:[9]
Date of attack
Attack description
19 April 1998
Fatah terrorists kill an American Israeli farmer on the Ma’on farm near Hebron.
14 January 2001
Fatah and Hamas claim responsibility for the murder of an Israeli whose body was found in agricultural hothouses in the Gaza Strip.
17 January 2001
Three Fatah Tanzim gunmen murder a 16-year-old Israeli boy who is lured on the internet by a Palestinian woman posing as an American
A Fatah assassin kills an Israeli motorist by gunfire near Tulkarem
20 June 2001
A Fatah Tanzim terrorist kills with gunfire an Israeli who had gone to visit a Palestinian business partner in Silat a-Dahar
12 July 2001
Four Fatah Tanzim terrorists shoot and kill an Israeli driver outside Kiryat Arba
13 July 2001
Fatah Tanzim terrorists kill an official investigating the site of a deadly shooting the previous day
26 July 2001
Fatah Tanzim shoot and kill an Israeli driver near Givat Ze’ev
12 December 2001
2001 Immanuel bus attack Fatah and Hamas claim responsibility for an attack on an Israeli bus that kill 11
15 January 2002
Fatah Tanzim terrorists shoot and kill a 45-year-old Israeli woman at a gas station near Givat Ze’ev
16 January 2002
Fatah Tanzim terrorists shoot and kill an Arab resident of Beit Hanina, having mistaken her for a Jewish Israeli
27 January 2002
A female Fatah terrorist kills one and wounds 150 people in a suicide bomb attack in Jerusalem
6 February 2002
Fatah and Hamas claim responsibility for the murder of an 11-year-old daughter and her mother in Moshav Hamra
9 February 2002
Fatah Tanzim terrorists shoot and kill an Israeli female driver and injure her son
27 February 2002
Two Fatah groups claim responsibility for a shooting attack conducted by a Palestinian worker against his employer in Atarot
11 May 2003
Fatah and PFLP claim responsibility for a shooting attack that kills an Israeli motorist near Ofra
17 April 2004
Fatah and Hamas claim responsibility for a suicide attack in the Erez crossing that kills one and injures three border guards
2 May 2004
Fatah and Islamic Jihad claim joint responsibility for an gunfire attack that kills four daughters and her mother while driving
12 August 2004
A Fatah Tanzim terrorist kills six Israeli border guards, two Palestinian civilians, and injures 12 Palestinians by detonating a suicide bomb in Kalandiyah.
24 June 2005
Fatah and Islamic Jihad terrorists shoot and kill two Israelis near Hebron
