(Arabic for “conquest” and a reverse acronym for “Harakat al-Tahrir al-Watani al-Filistani” or “Palestine Liberation Movement”) The largest Palestinian political party, Fatah currently governs the West Bank and is the dominant faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Yasser Arafat, among other Palestinian leaders, founded Fatah in Kuwait in 1959 as a secular Palestinian national movement. It began paramilitary and political operations in 1964, and assumed the leadership of the PLO in 1968. During the Oslo Process, it became identified as the chief proponent of a negotiated, two-state solution. In 2006, the Hamas victory in the Palestinian legislative elections resulted in the end of Fatah’s political dominance. The events that followed resulted in a division between Fatah and Hamas, with Fatah assuming political leadership of the West Bank (see Palestinian Civil War); Fatah party members still reside in the Gaza Strip. Fatah signed a unity agreement with Hamas in April 2011, the results of which are yet to be seen. See Parsons, Nigel. The Politics of the Palestinian Authority: From Oslo to al-Aqsa. New York & London: Routledge, 2005; and Abu Khalil, As’ad. “Fatah.” Philip Mattar, ed. Encyclopedia of the Palestinians. New York: Facts on File, 2005.  http://www.justvision.org/glossary/fatah