Yasser Arafat
PLO Chairman who led the Palestinian national movement for nearly 40 years.
Life
Fatah
Arafat was born in Cairo and studied engineering in Egypt; around 1959 he helped found Fatah and led armed struggle against Israel. In 1969 he became Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Olive branch and gun
In 1974 he addressed the UN General Assembly, saying he came "bearing an olive branch in one hand and a freedom fighter's gun in the other." In 1988 the Palestinian National Council proclaimed a state, after which the PLO accepted UN resolutions and recognized Israel's right to exist. In 1993 he and Rabin signed the Oslo Accords; the following year he returned to Gaza, and in 1996 he was elected President of the Palestinian National Authority. He shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Rabin and Peres.
Oslo
After the peace talks failed in 2000, the Second Intifada broke out; he was besieged by the Israeli army in his compound in Ramallah, and died of illness in Paris in 2004.
Legacy
Arafat was the symbol of the Palestinian national movement; the armed struggle he led was long regarded as terrorism in Israel and the West, yet late in life he became a signatory of peace agreements, and opinions of him differ sharply.
Did you know? His trademark black-and-white checkered keffiyeh was folded into the shape of a map of Palestine.
Key dates
- 1959Co-founds Fatah (approx.)
- 1969PLO Chairman
- 1974Addresses the UN General Assembly
- 1993Signs the Oslo Accords
- 1994Wins the Nobel Peace Prize
- 1996Elected President of the Palestinian Authority
- 2004Died