Karameh

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Al Karameh (or simply Karameh) is a town in Jordan, near the Allenby Bridge which spans the Jordan River. The river defines the border with territory controlled by Israel.

Karameh was also the battleground for one of the main events in the history of the Palestinian national movement. In 1968, the city served as the political and military headquarters of the Palestinian al-Fatah movement, led by Yasser Arafat.

Fatah organized bands of guerrillas to launch attacks on the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The Jordanian government did not immediately oppose the militias; it has been alleged that the Jordanian government was complicit in the attacks, although King Hussein has himself asserted that he attempted to dissuade Arafat personally from continuing his incursions.

The Israeli military ultimately invaded Karameh in search of the Palestinian leadership, denouncing them as terrorists. The Palestinian militants and Israeli soldiers each suffered casualties; when the Jordanian army mobilized to secure Karameh from the IDF, the Israelis retreated under Jordanian bombardment. Palestinian guerrillas subsequently claimed this "victory" as their own, though King Hussein rejected that characterization.

The Palestinians recall the event as the rebuff and retreat of the heavily armed and technologically advanced Israeli military, heartening the Palestinian resistance to Israel. Israel similarly claimed victory, characterizing the battle as a successful operation in which the number of terrorists killed outweighed the number of Israeli soldiers killed. Some scholars have expressed a third view, describing the events as "a conflict with limited military importance" which has since been blown up and exaggerated by both sides.^[1]

The Battle of Karameh was among a series of events leading up to Black September in Jordan, in which King Hussein ordered the Jordanian army to crush emboldened Palestinian forces.