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Yasir Arafat
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Famous As |
First President
of the Palestinian National Authority |
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Born On |
08 August
1929 |
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Born In |
Cairo, Egypt |
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Died On |
11 November,
2004 |
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Nationality |
Palestinian
Territories |
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Yasir Arafat was a
leader of the state of Palestine and 1st President of the
Palestinian National Authority. The leader is also known as the
Chairman of the Palestine liberation Organization who founded the
secular political party Fattah in 1959, stepping in as its leader.
Mainly known for his anti-Israeli stance, Arafat pushed the country
in to a long war with Israel in the name of self-determination.
While he is portrayed as a martyr in his own country Palestine,
Arafat is also condemned for his attacks on Israeli civilians. |
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The
tension between these countries finally began
subsiding with the acceptation of UN Security
Council resolution 242 in 1988, and he
eventually succeeded in managing the uneasy
balance between militancy and diplomacy in the
Middle East. Arafat made the mistake of
supporting Saddam Hussein during the Kuwait
crisis of 1990 and paid the price of political
isolation in the Gulf. In 1994, Yasir Arafat was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with Shimon
Peres and Yitzhak Rabin. |
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Childhood:
Yasir Arafat was born
on August 24, 1929 in Cairo, the capital city of Egypt. His father
Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini, a Gazan, was a spice, incense and
grocery merchant. His original name was
Mohammed Abdul Raouf Arafat
al-Qudwa al-Husseini. Arafat was the fifth among the seven children
born to Husseini His mother, Zahwa Abul Saud, was from Jerusalem and
a religiously devoted woman. She died from a kidney ailment in 1933.
Following the death of his mother, Arafat and his bother Faithi
supposedly spent the next four years with his uncle in Jerusalem.
Arafat had a deteriorating relationship with his father and when he
died in 1952, Arafat did not even attend the funeral.Revolutionary
Activities.
Arafat entered the
Cairo University (then, University of King Faud I) in 1947 and
studied of Judaism and Zionism. It was during his college years that
Arafat adopted the name Yasser, which means “easygoing” in
Arabic. At the same time, Arafat became an Arab nationalist involved
in the Palestinian cause. He began to procure weapons into the
territory. |
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During the 1948
Arab–Israeli War, Arafat left the University and, along with other
Arabs, sought to enter Palestine to join Arab forces fighting
against Israeli troops. Before the Arabs were defeated by Israel in
1948, Arafat was a leader in the Palestinian effort to smuggle arms
into the territory. In 1949, when the situation was in favor of the
Israel's troops Arafat returned to Cairo. After returning to
University, Arafat studied civil engineering and graduated with a
bachelor’s degree. In 1956, Arafat was called to duty to fight with
Egyptian forces during the Suez Crisis. He served as a second
lieutenant in the Egyptian Army during the crisis. After the Suez
War, Arafat settled in Kuwait. He first employed in the department
of public works and eventually set up his own contracting firm.
There he developed friendships with two Palestinian nationals Abu Iyad and Abu Jihad. They were both official members of the Egyptian
Muslim Brotherhood.
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Foundation of Al-Fatah:
In 1958 Arafat, along
with his friends founded “Al-Fatah”, an underground network of
secret cells, which later advocated armed struggle against Israel.
Fatah dedicated itself to the liberation of Palestine by an armed
struggle and at the end of 1964 Arafat left Kuwait to become
full-time revolutionary, organizing raids into Israel from Jordan. In order to act
independently, Arafat refused to accept donations from the major
Arab heads. However, he did not want to alienate them, and sought
their support by avoiding alliances with groups loyal to some other
ideologies. To establish the groundwork
for Fatah's financial support,Arafat sought contributions from the
wealthy Palestinians working in the Gulf States. Interestingly, the
businessmen and oil workers of the Gulf region contributed
generously to the Fatah organization. In 1962, Fatah had
approximately three hundred members, but none were fighters. Fatah's
manpower increased further after Arafat decided to offer much higher
salaries to members of the Palestine Liberation Army (PLA), the
regular military force of the Arab League in 1964. Fatah emerged as the
most powerful and best organized of the groups and Arafat became the
chairman of the PLO executive committee. The PLO was no longer a
puppet organization of the Arab states, but an independent
nationalist organization, based in Jordan. Disturbed by the
activities of Arafat and his men, Jordan King, Hussein, expelled the
PLO from his country. Arafat then sought to build a similar
organization in Lebanon. Because of Lebanon's weak central
government, the PLO was able to operate virtually as an independent
state. |
Munich
Massacre:
During the 1972 Summer
Olympics in Munich, “Black September”, a Palestinian militant
group, kidnapped and killed eleven Israeli athletes. The incident
came to be known as “Munich Massacre”. The Black September, as
reported by some noted historians, was a branch of Fatah used for
paramilitary operations. In 1973–74, Arafat directed the PLO to
withdraw from acts of violence outside Israel, the West Bank and
Gaza Strip. To investigate the
Munich Massacre, the Israeli government launched the Operation
Bayonet. It ordered its intelligence agecy, Mossad to hunt down
those known to have been involved. In 1979, the Mossad had
assassinated at least eight PLO members including Ali Hassan
Salameh, a commander of Yasser Arafat's personal security squad. A 1973 United States
Department of State document, declassified in 2006, concluded that
the Khartoum operation was planned and executed with the full
knowledge and personal approval of Yasser Arafat. The “Khartoum
diplomatic assassinations” were the killing of three Western
diplomats held hostage between 1 March 1973 and 3 March 1973 in the
Saudi embassy in Khartoum, capital city of Sudan. They were murdered
by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September. Arafat denied
any involvement in the operation and insisted it was carried out
independently by the “Black September” group. In 1973, the PLO was
inducted into the Arab League at Rabat summit and also declared the
sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. Arafat
became the first representative of a non-governmental organization
to address a plenary session of the UN General Assembly. During the
Lebanon war, Arafat aligned the PLO with the Nasserist Lebanese
National Movement led by Kamal Jumblatt. Syrian President Hafez al-Assad,
fearing a loss of control in Lebanon, sent members of the Tigers
Militia against PLO. |
In February 1975, the
militia gunned down prominent pro-Palestinian leader, Ma'arouf
Sa'ad. Retaliating against the attack, the DFLP, PLO and LNM
attacked the town of Damour, killing over 330 people. Arafat and
Abu Jihad, who did not support the attack in Damour, blamed
themselves for not managing to prevent the carnage. On March 11,
1978, around ten Fatah fighters hijacked a bus and sprayed
gunfire inside and at passing vehicles on the road connecting
Haifa with Tel Aviv. The brutal incident killed thirty-seven
civilians. The Civil War ended and Arafat was sent to exile in
Tunis.
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Peace-Process:
The policymakers in
the United States recognized that agreement on Israeli-Palestinian
negotiations wasn’t possible until the Arab states took steps toward
peace with Israel. In 1991, U.S. Secretary of State James Baker
persuaded Israel and her neighbors to attend a regional peace
conference. During the 1991 Madrid Conference, for the first time
ever, Israel conducted open negotiations with the PLO. But they did
not reach any consensus. Thereafter, Israelis and PLO began
negotiating over the issue and ultimately reached an agreement to
give the Palestinians self-rule in Gaza and Jericho, followed by
autonomy in other parts of the territories. On September 13, 1993,
officials of both Israel and Palestine signed the Declaration of
Principles in Washington, D.C. In 1994, Yasser Arafat was awarded
the Nobel Peace Prize along with Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin. In 1994, Arafat moved
to the PNA controlled Gaza City and became the President and Prime
Minister of the Palestinian National Authority. In July 1994, the
PNA was declared the official government of the Palestine. Yasser
Arafat established an executive committee of twenty members and
empowered himself with liberty to replace and assign mayors and city
councils. Arafat appointed himself chairman of the Palestinian
financial organization, created by the World Bank to control most
aid money towards helping the new Palestinian entity. Arafat also
formed Preventive Security Service, the police force of the state of
Palestine. |
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Controversies
and Last Days of life:
In August 2003, the
International Monetary Fund, in an audit claimed that Arafat had
diverted $900 million in public funds to a special bank account
controlled by Arafat and the PNA Chief Economic Financial adviser.
Former Middle East negotiator for the United States of America,
Dennis Ross, had once said that Arafat was "walking-around money". A
major controversy erupted between officials of the PNA and Suha,
Arafat’s wife, when officials from the PNA traveled to France to see
Yasser. Suha accused that they were trying to bury Yasser alive.
On October 25, 2004,
Yasser Arafat was admitted to the hospital after he vomited during
a meeting. His condition continued to decline and he was flown to
a French hospital jet to in Clamart, Paris. On November 11, 2004,
the doctors pronounced the death of Yasser Arafat. The exact cause
of his illness is still unknown.
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Time Line:
1929:
August 24- Birth of Yasser Arafat
in Cairo.
1933:
His mother passed away
1947:
Studies Judaism and Zionism
1948:
Arafat left university during the Arab-Israeli war
1952:
Death of his father
1956:
Posted at Suez Canal representing the Egyptian forces.
1958:
Arafat founded the Al-Fatah
1972:
Arafat accused of executing the Munich Massacre
1973:
Accused for the Khartoum Diplomats Assassination.
1991:
Madrid Conference to resolve the Palestine issue
1993:
Officials of Israel and Palestine signed the Declaration of
Principles
2004:
November 11, Arafat passed away in a hospital in
Cambart, Paris.
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