Yasser Arafat

Yasser Arafat (24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004) is best known as the first modern leader of the Palestinian people. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1969 to 2004. In 1993, he also became president of the Palestinian National Authority (PA).

Yasser Arafat
ياسر عرفات
Yasser Arafat speaking at the World Economic Forum in 2001
1st President of the Palestinian National Authority
In office 5 July 1994 – 11 November 2004
Prime Minister	Mahmoud Abbas Ahmed Qurei
Succeeded by	Rawhi Fattouh (interim)
Third Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization
In office 4 February 1969 – 29 October 2004
Preceded by	Yahya Hammuda
Succeeded by	Mahmoud Abbas
Personal details
Born	Mohammed al-Qudwa al-Husseini (1929-08-24)24 August 1929 Cairo, Egypt
Died	11 November 2004(2004-11-11) (aged 75) Clamart, Hauts-de-Seine, France
Resting place	Arafat's compound, Ramallah, Palestine
Nationality	Palestinian
Political party	Fatah
Profession	Civil engineer
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Arafat was born in Jerusalem, Gaza or Cairo. He studied civil engineering at Cairo University. He worked as an engineer in Kuwait.

In 1994, Yasser Arafat won the Nobel Peace Prize along with two others. They got the prize for their peace efforts in the Middle East when Palestinian National Authority was formed.

The views of him are somewhat divided. Some people see him as a hero, who fought for the cause of the Palestinian people. Others see him as a terrorist, who promoted the use of violence to reach his goals. Still others think he was a charismatic leader, but he made too many concessions to the Israeli government.

Yasser died in Paris from a cerebral hemorrhage. The next day he was buried at his compound, with a hasty funeral in Ramallah on November 12. He was reburied on November 13, about 3:30 am. He was buried in a special casket, with the hope of being reburied in Jerusalem one day when an independent State of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital would be established.

Yasser Arafat Media

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  Arafat with Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine leader, Nayef Hawatmeh and Palestinian writer Kamal Nasser at press conference in Amman, 1970

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  Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser (center) mediating an agreement between Arafat and Jordanian King Hussein to end to the Black September conflict, during the emergency Arab League summit, September 1970

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  Yasser Arafat visits East Germany in 1971; background: Brandenburg Gate

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  Yasser Arafat with Bhim Singh, founder of Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party, in the 1970s

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  Arafat in a Palestinian refugee camp in Southern Lebanon, 1978

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  Arafat with Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish (center) and PFLP leader George Habash (right) in Syria, 1980

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  Arafat with Iranian Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan, days after Iranian Revolution

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  Yitzhak Rabin, Bill Clinton, and Arafat during the Oslo Accords on 13 September 1993

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  Arafat, Shimon Peres and Rabin receiving the Nobel Peace Prize following the Oslo Accords, 10 December 1994

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  Arafat with PNA cabinet members Yasser Abed Rabbo (left) and Nabil Shaath (right) at a meeting in Copenhagen, 1999

• Footage of Arafat speaking and meeting international leaders

Related pages

• List of Nobel Prize winners by country

Other websites

Media related to Yasser Arafat at Wikimedia Commons

• Life in Palestine after Arafat, Situation worse, not what Bush and Sharon planned Archived 2005-04-16 at the Wayback Machine
• The Real Obstacle to Peace was Ariel Sharon, not Yasser Arafat
• Death of Arafat, burial and reburial November 13 2004