Yasser Arafat 91929-20040

Yasser Arafat, one of the most pivotal figures in the decades-long struggle between Israel and the Palestinians, which has dominated much of U.S. foreign and world policy since the 1950s, died Nov. 11, 2004, in a military hospital near Paris. He was 75.
Arafat, a controversial and polarizing leader -- recognized the world over by his red and white keffiyah headdress -- wielded immeasurable influence in the Middle East. He was at once hailed as a martyr by his Palestinian constituents and ostracized by Israel as an instigator and terrorist.
In recent years, Arafat, a co-signer with late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of the 1993 Oslo peace accords, spent his days in his compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah, isolated and barred from peace negotiations by his lifelong foe, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
In 2003, Sharon and the Bush administration chose to end negotiations with Arafat, excluding him from talks because of the Palestinian leader's perceived failure to crack down on militant Islamic groups like Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.
Arafat yielded to international pressure in March of that year and appointed the U.S.-backed Mahmoud Abbas as the new prime minister in an effort to reform the Palestinian government. However, an ensuing power struggle between the two men over Arafat's refusal to yield control of Palestinian security forces to an Abbas-chosen security director. The struggle led to Abbas' resignation after only four months as prime minister.

He continued to battle internally with fellow Palestinian leaders, grudgingly yielding to Abbas' successor Ahmed Qurei, with whom he fought over the creation of a new Palestinian cabinet.
Despite being banned from talks and largely trapped in his Ramallah compound, Arafat continued to influence Palestinian public, many of whom still hailed the frail leader as a hero. He held office from amidst the rubble of his destroyed compound -- a once-sprawling block of residential buildings and offices destroyed by a series of Israeli raids in 2002.
At an August 2003 rally, a withered Arafat appeared at the balcony of his home as thousands of marchers shouted their support and carried life-size Arafat posters.
Arafat's roots in conflict
Mohammed Abdel-Raouf Arafat al Qudwa al-Hussein was born, according to his birth certificate, in 1929 in Cairo, Egypt, though he insisted throughout his life that his birthplace was Jerusalem. When he was 4, Arafat's mother died and his father, a Palestinian merchant, sent him to live with his uncle in Jerusalem.
As a teenager, Arafat developed an interest in the Palestinian cause. During the Arab-Israeli war in the late 1940s, he helped smuggle arms into Palestine to aid the Arab countries. After the war, Arafat enrolled at what is now the University of Cairo in Egypt, where he studied civil engineering. During that time, he led the Palestinian Student League and argued for the creation of a Palestinian state. His dream eluded him.
In the 1950s Arafat was drafted into the Egyptian army, where he fought in the 1956 Suez Campaign, a dispute between Israel and Egypt over the Suez Canal. After leaving the army, Arafat founded the militant group Al Fatah, a group responsible for terrorist attacks in Israel throughout the 1960s. In 1969, after the second Arab-Israeli War, Arab nations tapped Arafat to head their recently formed Palestinian Liberation Organization. It was as PLO chairman that Arafat made a true name for himself.
Headquartered in Jordan, PLO factions carried out terrorist attacks in Europe and the Middle East. As the PLO's leader, Arafat did not condemn the various attacks. In 1971 Jordan's King Hussein banned the organization from his country. Lebanon became the group's new headquarters.
In 1974, the United Nations officially recognized the PLO and gave Arafat permission to address member nations, the first head of a non-government ever to address the body. Arafat gave his speech wearing military garb and a gun holster. "Today I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun," he said. "Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand. I repeat: do not let the olive branch fall from my hand."
After the Israelis destroyed the PLO's headquarters in Beirut during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, Arafat again moved the organization, this time to Tunisia. From there, he supported the 1987 Intifada, the first widespread uprising of Palestinians against Israeli rule. By its end in 1993 the Intifada had left over 1,000 people dead.
Among the many acts of terrorism Arafat has been associated with are the 1973 murders of two U.S. ambassadors in Sudan and the deadly 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise ship the Achille Lauro. Arafat denied involvement in both cases.
A strategy for peace
In 1988, after years of war and violence, Arafat shifted his efforts to the diplomatic arena, declaring that the PLO would renounce violence and establish an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza. The organization officially agreed to recognize Israel and its right to live in peace.
Five years later, guided by the United States and other international leaders, Arafat met with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres for secret peace negotiations in Norway. The three men signed the historic Oslo peace accords in September of that year. Under the agreement, Arafat returned to the West Bank in the summer of 1994. That same year, Arafat, Rabin and Peres won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to end the fighting.
For his part in the negotiations, Rabin, a noted war hero, was shot and killed by an Israeli extremist less than two years later. Arafat, who was allowed to visit Rabin's grieving widow after the assassination in a show of solidarity, would become the first president of the PLO in charge of the West Bank and Gaza.
Arafat's legacy
In 2003 the BBC interviewed Zakariya Zubaydi, the young leader of the militant Palestinian group al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. During the interview, Zubaydi produced a black-and-white picture taken in the 1960s of a young Arafat carrying an AK-47 assault rifle. According to the BBC, Zubaydi said the picture was of his hero. He called Arafat an honest man who shared the pain of the Palestinian people and who was being persecuted by the Israelis because he would not give in to them.
Although Arafat never saw his dream of an independent Palestinian state realized, the people for whom he'd fought for more than 60 years remained faithful followers until his death. When Israel threatened to deport Arafat in 2003, and when a member of the Israeli cabinet made public mention of possibly assassinating Arafat, Palestinian protesters rallied outside Arafat's home, vowing to die to protect their leader.
The last time Arafat made a public appearance was Aug. 18, 2004, when he made a keynote address to the Palestinian Legislative Council at his headquarters.
Though ailing after an October 2003 heart attack and rumored to be suffering from Parkinson's disease, the leader, who in his life survived a plane crash, death threats, military raids and war, remained politically active until his death.
A bachelor until 1990, Arafat leaves behind his wife Suha and their daughter Zahwa, both living in Paris.