Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

180 • FATAH, ALThe Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon and siege of Beirut in thesummer of 1982 forced the PLO to remove its forces from Lebanonand to move its administrative offices to Tunis. Although al Fatahtroops were moved to Tunisia, Algeria, and South Yemen, they beganinfiltrating Lebanon again in 1983. An anti-Arafat revolt amongal Fatah troops instigated by Syria forced Arafat to leave Lebanonagain in 1983. Following the murder by al Fatah agents of threeIsraeli vacationers in Larnaca, Cyprus, on 25 September 1985, theIsraeli air force retaliated with a bomb and missile attack on the PLOheadquarters south of Tunis, in which 60 Palestinians were killed andaround 100 injured. After that event, al Fatah dispersed its offices andpersonnel across several countries. One of al Fatah’s original founders,Khalil al Wazir, who was Yasir Arafat’s second-in-command andchief of the al Fatah terrorist operations unit known as Force 17 thatwas responsible for the Larnaca murders, was assassinated by anIsraeli commando team on 16 April 1988. The Israelis have claimedthat al Wazir, known also as Abu Jihad, masterminded the triggeringof the first intifada uprising in addition to being “an arch-terroriststeeped in blood.” Al Fatah lost another of its original founders andranking members when an assassin of Abu Nidal’s Fatah RevolutionaryCouncil killed Salah Khalaf along with three other PLOofficials on 14 January 1991.Following the eruption of the Palestinian intifada on 9 December1987, al Fatah and its opposition within the PLO set aside someof their differences. The 19th PNC meeting in Algiers on 15 November1988 issued a declaration of independence on behalf of thePalestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In this conference thePLO formally adopted al Fatah’s long-standing declaratory policyrenouncing terrorism outside of the occupied territories and Israeland also declared its acceptance of United Nations Resolutions 242and 338, contingent on Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied territoriesand the establishment of a Palestinian state there. AlthoughArafat reiterated al Fatah’s and the PLO’s renunciation of terrorismand recognition of Israel’s right to exist before the UN General Assemblyon 13 December 1988, in practice this declaration entailedno willingness to denounce terrorist acts committed in the name ofthe intifada nor subsequent attacks within Israel such as the al Fatah–alignedPalestine Liberation Front’s raid on the beaches of TelAviv on 30 May 1990. Al Fatah further eroded its diplomatic lever-