Arafat, Yassir (1929-2004)

Palestinian nationalist politician, cofounder of the al-Fatah (Movement for the National Liberation of Palestine) resistance group in 1958, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1969, and president of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) from 1994. He was a key player in peace talks with Israel regarding the status of the Palestinian territories of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank within Israel (see Israel-Palestine peace process). His power as president of the PNA was diminished by his failure to control Palestinian extremists during the intifada (uprising) against Israel that began in September 2000, and the appointment in 2003 of a prime minister to run day-to-day government in the PNA. In 1994, he shared the Nobel Prize for Peace with Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and foreign minister Shimon Peres for their agreement of an accord on Palestinian self-rule.

Born in Cairo, Egypt (his place of birth is disputed), he became involved as a teenager with the Palestinian cause, smuggling arms to assist those fighting against the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. He studied civil engineering at Cairo University, where he was a leader of Palestinian students, and later resettled in Kuwait and formed al-Fatah, whose guerrilla forces were active from the mid-1960s. He left Kuwait in 1964 to become a full-time revolutionary, organizing al-Fatah raids into Israel from Jordan, and helped found the PLO. Within five years, al-Fatah had gained control of the organization and he became PLO leader, and by 1974 was recognized as the legitimate spokesman for the Palestinian people. In the 1970s Arafat's diplomatic activities in pursuit of an independent homeland for Palestinians made him a prominent figure in world politics, but the PLO's attacks on Israel also meant he was seen as a terrorist leader. In the 1980s the growth of factions within the PLO effectively reduced his power, but he remained leader of most of the organization. In December 1988, at a speech to the United Nations, Arafat formally condemned all forms of terrorism and explicitly recognized the right of the state of Israel to exist. In September 1993, he reached a historic peace accord with Israel, under which Israeli troops would stage a phased withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. After being based in Lebanon in the 1970s and Tunisia in the 1980s, he returned to the occupied territories in 1994 as head of the PNA. Further agreements on the transfer of power into Palestinian hands were reached in September 1995 and October 1998.