On This Day

Learn about the history of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, equality and justice by exploring major events in the history of their oppression on this day of the year.

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21 March

Centurion tankPALESTINIAN FIGHTERS DEFEAT HUGE ISRAELI ATTACK FORCE
On this day in 1968, the Battle of Karameh. 15,000 Israeli soldiers with tanks attacked Palestinian guerrillas across the Jordan River. The fighters sustained heavy casualties but the huge Israeli force was decisively repelled by the fedayeen aided by the Jordanian army. Israel lost 28 killed and 100 wounded. Tanks and other vehicles were destroyed or abandoned during a hasty retreat as the Israeli army asked for a ceasefire. The fedayeen victory was a morale boost for Palestinians locked into or locked out of Palestine homeland

 

.واجهت القوات الفدائية الفلسطينية وهزمت قوه إسرائيلية ضخمة مدججة بالسلاح والمقاتلين 

21 مارس

في مثل هذا اليوم من عام 1968 كانت معركة الكرامة. هاجم 15000 جندي اسرائيلي بالدبابات المقاتلين الفلسطينيين عبر نهر الأردن. تكبد المقاتلون الفلسطينيون خسائر فادحة في الأرواح ولكنهم صدوا بشكل حاسم القوة الإسرائيلية الضخمة بمساعدة الجيش الأردني. فقدت إسرائيل 28 قتيلا و 100 جريح. تم تدمير الدبابات والمركبات الأخرى أو التخلي عنها خلال انسحاب الجيش الإسرائيلي على عجل بعد طلبهم بوقف إطلاق النار. كان انتصار الفدائيين بمثابة دفعة معنوية للفلسطينيين تحت الاحتلال أو الفلسطينيين المحرومين من العودة الى أرضهم فلسطين.

 

 

A major Israeli military force crossed the River Jordan for what they anticipated would be an unremarkable "mopping-up" operation. For some time, Fatah commandos had been conducting military operations in the territory that had recently been conquered, before retreating into bases set up in Jordanian territory.

Drunk on its lightning-fast victory the previous June, the Israeli army had not done its homework, and came to Karameh expecting a picnic. It instead headed into a fiasco. Confronted with dogged resistance, the Israeli forces were surprised: the battle lasted 15 hours and the great Israeli army lost 4 tanks, a plane and 33 men, as well as a hundred-odd wounded. The Palestinians lost between 120 and 150 combatants, but Fatah gained an aura which made it the symbol of possible revenge for the humiliating defeat that the Arab armies had suffered in June 1967.

The fifteen hour engagement east of the Jordan River between the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), and the Jordanian Armed Forces, was something of a draw, with all sides heralding a victory...

The Jordanians and Palestinians, by holding their ground and forcing the IDF to retreat, celebrated the battle as a victory against the unstoppable Israelis, who had earlier vanquished three Arab armies in the Six Day War of June 1967. Fatah, the dominant party that heads today’s Palestinian Authority, notched the battle as as moment the Palestinians stood their ground, scoring political points since the other, smaller Palestinian groups, such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) had pulled its fighters out. Especially notable for the Palestinians is the village name of Karameh, which means 'dignity'.

For years, the Israeli public was not made aware of the fact that Maj. Gen. Uzi Narkis, head of Central Command had failed at Karameh and that, after the operation, he was dismissed as head of Central Command.

The bravery of the Fatah commandos in confronting and engaging a heavily armed Israeli unit as well as the performance of the Jordanian Army unit helped to revive pride in the Arab world after the humiliating losses sustained by Arab armies during the Six Day War with the Israeli armed forces.

Israeli Army preparations were known in advance. Fatah commandos remained in the village willing to confront the IDF while guerrillas of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) led by George Habash and those of Nayef Hawatmeh's Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) had withdrawn to the hills.

The Palestinian guerrillas put up a valiant showing, but would have been annihilated without the intervention of the Jordanian Army. The Jordanian Army, while advising Fatah to withdraw, had promised to intervene if the fighting became heavy.

BBC journalist, Jeremy Bowen wrote in "Six Days: How the 1967 War Shaped the Middle East":

"For Palestinians, the most important legacy of the battle was that it established the legend of Yasser Arafat. Even though most of his men were killed, wounded or taken prisoner, they had stood up to the Israelis in a way that Arab regulars had singularly failed to do nine months earlier."