Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

182 • FATAH, ALAfter the outbreak of the second intifada following the 28 September2000 visit to the Temple Mount by Likud Party leader ArielSharon, Israel accused al Fatah of instigating and orchestrating theclashes and violence that continued over several months. It shouldbe noted that various dissident Palestinian groups that have opposedal Fatah, such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad of Palestine, have playedroles in instigating such violence independent of any direction fromal Fatah. With the development of corps of suicide bombers by bothHamas and Islamic Jihad of Palestine, al Fatah sponsored its ownsuicide volunteer corps, the al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, in orderto maintain its own leadership and revolutionary standing with thePalestinians.Following the death of Arafat on 11 November 2004, Farouk Kaddoumiwas elected chair of al Fatah. In the Palestinian presidentialelections of 9 January 2005, al Fatah endorsed Mahmoud Abbas, whowas serving as prime minister of the PA at the time of Arafat’s deathand who won election as PA president. Ahmad Qurei was then appointedprime minister. In the several local Palestinian elections thatfollowed, the first of their kind to be held in over 30 years, Hamasoutcompeted al Fatah in most contested elections, but the electoralprocess was marred by confusion over the electoral rules and by irregularitiesat polling places. During the first round of Palestinianmunicipal and local council elections, held on 23 December 2004 inthe West Bank, al Fatah won a majority of seats in 12 councils andHamas won a majority in seven councils, while there was no clearmajority in the remaining seven council elections. In the Gaza electionsheld on 27 January 2005, Hamas won control of seven of the10 councils, al Fatah won control of two councils, and the PFLP wonthe remaining council. The second round of elections were held in theWest Bank on 5 May 2005 and in Gaza on 19 May 2005; al Fatahwon control of 29 councils, Hamas won control of 20 councils, andindependents won in 22 councils, while nine councils were won bycoalitions of parties. Third and fourth rounds of elections were scheduledfor 29 September 2005 and 15 December 2005, respectively, butin several locations the elections were not carried out. In the first tworounds of elections the block voting system was used, but in the nexttwo rounds the electoral system was switched to a proportional representation–partylist system, with the candidates’ party affiliationsoften being unclear. The change in the electoral system rules con-