Al-saika

Al-Saika was formed in 1966 as a power organization affiliated with the Syrian branch of the Ba'ath Party. Its members were recruited mainly from the lower ranks of the Syrian army. She first participated in active operations in December 1968, when the Syrian socialist government tried to find an alternative to Yasser Arafat , who acted as the leader of Fatah , positioning himself as the first leader of the Palestinian fidainov ^[2] . Al-Saika joined the Palestine Liberation Organization and became the second largest and most important faction after Fatah ^[3] .

Al-Saik’s organization was repeatedly used during the internal political struggle in Syria itself, in particular, Salah Jadid , the actual leader of Syria from 1966 to 1970, drew its forces to curb the growing political ambitions of Hafez al-Assad . After Assad reached the pinnacle of power during the “correctional revolution” in 1970, the organization was partially dissolved and people who were personally loyal to the new head of state were appointed its leaders ^[4] . Muhsein Zahir , a Palestinian Ba'athist who was transferred to Syria in refugee status from Jordan, was appointed the new Secretary-General of the organization. Subsequently, with active support from Assad, Zahir was promoted to the post of head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, but was never appointed, because he was unable to enlist the support of any of the factions.

Al-Saik was used in the interests of the Syrian government in the struggle for influence in Palestine. She gained substantial credibility in the Palestinian refugee camps in the SAR and Lebanon in the 1970s. During the civil war in Lebanon, the Assad government first supported the Palestine Liberation Organization, but after a deterioration in relations between him and Arafat As-Saik and the PLO, they began to war. As a result, in 1976, Al-Saika was expelled from the PLO, but already in December of that year she was accepted back, since relations between Assad and Arafat somewhat normalized. At the same time, frequent attacks on the PLO led to large-scale desertion by militants from this organization. In 1974, Al-Saika also joined the Radical Front of the Palestinian Forces, despite the adoption of the 10 Point Program, which affected the separation of the Palestine Liberation Organization from the RFPS.

Al-Saika participated in the massacre in Damur in 1976 and other war crimes ^[5] .

In 1979, Al-Saik leader Zuheir Mohsen was assassinated in Cannes , after which Isam Al-Qadi , another notable leader of the Palestinian Ba'athists, became the organization’s new secretary general. The Al-Saik movement again took an active part in the battles of the civil war in Lebanon, supporting the Shiite Lebanese Resistance Cohort . During the 1984-1985 Camp War, Al-Sayka launched numerous attacks on the PLO, speaking on the side of Fatah led by Saeed Al-Muragda . Such frequent clashes led to cases of mass desertion from the ranks of the Palestinian liberation movement. After the end of the civil war, Al-Saika finally broke up with the PLO ^[6] and retained influence exclusively in Syria and in those regions of Lebanon that were controlled by Syria. Al-Saika constantly opposed the proposals for a peaceful settlement made by Arafat, and also became part of the Palestinian National Alliance, which also opposed the official line of Arafat.

After the signing of the Oslo peace agreement in 1993, the importance of Al-Saik fell sharply, and the number of its members decreased. For a long time, Al-Saik militants maintained their presence in Lebanon until 2005, when the term of military presence of the ATS contingent in Lebanon expired. Subsequently, Al-Saika almost completely lost her authority among the Palestinians in connection with her removal from the activities of the Palestinian National Authority .

An armed group called the “Eagles of the Palestinian Revolution” (probably the war wing of As Saika) took part in a number of terrorist acts that took on an international character. In particular, in 1979, militants captured the Egyptian embassy in Turkey . On the territory of Austria, Al-Saik terrorists, who left Bratislava on September 23, 1973, seized a train carrying Jewish immigrants traveling to Israel from the Soviet Union . The militants took four hostages, and the conditions for the release were put forward the closure of the Shenau fortress, which was a transit point for Jews who migrated from the USSR to Israel. After the Austrian government met the demands of the terrorists, they left for Libya .

Since 1990, after a change in political conditions, the organization ceased terrorist activities and, on this basis, was removed from the list of terrorist organizations of the US Department of State .

Al-Saika is a movement based on the traditions and views of Pan-Arab Ba'athism, for which the Pan-Arab doctrine is of particular importance. As-Saik leaders declared the cultural-genetic and geopolitical unity of the Arab nation. In particular, Al-Saik’s leader Zuheir Mohsen bluntly stated: “The Palestinian people do not exist ... In fact, today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. "For political and tactical reasons only, are we talking about the existence of a Palestinian people today, since Arab national interests require us to put forward the idea of ​​a separate Palestinian people that opposes Zionism for tactical reasons." Thus, the Al-Sayka leaders' discourse is also based on the manifestation of anti-Zionist and nationalist ideologies. In other words, the organization’s leaders actually rejected the concept of “ Palestinizing ” the conflict with Israel, insisting on the mandatory involvement of other Arab states in the Middle East. Such ideological installations of Al-Saik were generally characteristic of the Syrian leadership, primarily for Hafez al-Assad.