Terrorism: Israel and the World

More of this Feature • Part 1: Terrorism before Occupation • Part 2: "Land for Terrorism" • Part 3: Terrorism after Palestinian Statehood • Part 4: Radical Islamic Ideology Legitimizes Terrorism • Part 5: Arafat Supports Terrorism • Part 6: Fighting Terrorism   Anti-Israeli Terrorist Groups •  Hizbullah •  Hamas •  Islamic Jihad •  PFLP, PFLP-GC, PFL •  Fatah's Tanzim •  Fatah's Al-Aksa Martyrs' Brigades • Quranic Verses about Jihad  Elsewhere on the Web • Al-Qaida and al-Quran • Arab-Israeli Conflict: Myths and Facts • "Arafat Files" • Declaration of Principles, Oslo 1993 • Documents showing Arafat's Funding of Terrorist Activities • Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) • Palestinian National Authority Map of Palestine • Report on Palestinian Incitement to Violence • U.S. State Department - Background on Terrorist Groups

Fatah's Al-Aksa Marytrs Brigades

The Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades emerged shortly after the outbreak of Middle East violence in late September 2000.

The infrastructure, funds, leadership, and operatives that comprise the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades and facilitate the group’s activity all hail from Fatah.

• Documents that Israel seized from Orient House, the PA’s East Jerusalem headquarters, show that the PA had transferred funds to Fatah, the Tanzim, and its affiliated fighters.
• Example: July 9, 2002 letter, signed by Arafat, empowered Kamil Hmeid -- a Fatah leader in Bethlehem -- to disburse payments to twenty-four Fatah activists, including Atef Abayat, an Al-Aksa commander in Bethlehem.
  
  
• Documents that Israel seized in the raid on Arafat’s Ramallah headquarters show the PA transferred fund to Al-Aksa.
  • Example: Invoice from the Al-Aksa Martyrs asking for reimbursement for, among other things, explosives used in bombings in Israeli cities. The document was addressed to Brig. Gen. Fouad Shoubaki, the Palestinian Authority’s chief financial officer for military operations, and contained numerous handwritten notes and calculations, apparently added by Shoubaki’s staff. (translation of invoice.)

    Sidenote: Shoubaki, a close associate of Arafat for more than 30 years, paid some $200,000 for the purchase of a ship, Karin A, to haul weapons from Iran to the Palestinian Autonomous territories. The ship, containing some fifty tons of weapons in violations of Arafat’s agreements with Israel, was seized by Israeli commandos on the Red Sea in January 2002.

• Many of the Brigades’ leadership are salaried members of the PA and its security forces.
  • Example: Nasser Awais is a full-time employee of the Palestinian National Security Force and a senior Al-Aksa commander.
    
    
• Many Al-Aksa operatives are current or former PA police officers.
  • Example: Mohammed Hashaika, the Al-Aksa suicide bomber who struck Jerusalem on March 21, was a PA police officer.
    
    
• Fatah admits to being Al-Aksa’s parent and controlling organization.
  • Asked if Al-Aksa is under Arafat’s control, senior Fatah leader Hussein al-Sheikh openly responded, “of course, there is control.” In another interview, al- Sheikh confirmed that Fatah controls Al-Aksa “to one extent or another.”
    
    
• Al-Aksa admits their group has close ties to Fatah.
  • According to the Brigades’ Maslama Thabet, “the truth is, we are Fatah itself, but we don’t operate under the name Fatah. We are the armed wing of the organization. We receive our instructions from Fatah. Our commander is Yasser Arafat himself.”
    
    
• Senior PA officials consider Al-Aksa part of Fatah and applaud its accomplishments.
  • Arafat’s foreign media spokesman, Mohammed Odwan, confirmed to USA Today that the Brigades are “loyal to President Arafat.”
  • Just two days before Al-Aksa’s latest suicide bombing in Jerusalem, West Bank Preventive Security Organization chief Jibril Rajoub described the group to the al-Ayyam newspaper as “the noblest phenomenon in the history of Fatah, because they restored the movement’s honor and bolstered the political and security echelons of the Palestinian Authority.”

Al-Aksa’s intimate relationship with Yasser Arafat’s Fatah organization is well-known. The U.S. State Department hesitated to probe deeply into the activities of the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades for fear of delegitimizing the Palestinian Authority as a peace partner. Due to the sharp rise in Al-Aksa terrorist attacks in recent months, the State Department added the Al-Aksa Marytrs Brigades to its FTO (foreign terrorist organization) list.

More on Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades

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