biography
| name: |
Arafat, Yasser
|
| |
originally Mohammed Abd al-Ra'u Arafat
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pronunciation:
[arafat]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1929– )
|
| biography:
| Palestinian leader, born in Egypt. He studied at Cairo University (1952–6), and co-founded the Fatah resistance group in 1959. This group gained control of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), founded in 1964, and he became the chairman of its executive committee. In the 1980s the growth of factions within the PLO reduced his power, and in 1982 the Israeli invasion forced him to leave Beirut, and to relocate the PLO executive in Tunis. In 1988, King Hussein of Jordan surrendered his right to administer the West Bank, indicating that the PLO might take over the responsibility. Arafat, to the surprise of many Western politicians, persuaded most of his colleagues to formally acknowledge the right of Israel to co-exist with an independent state of Palestine. Elected president of the PLO Central Committee in 1988, his support for Saddam Hussein in the 1990 Gulf Crisis hurt his international standing, but his reputation was largely restored following his support of Palestinian participation in the Madrid peace talks of 1991. After the negotiations with Israel in 1993 the Palestine National Authority (PNA) was set up in Jericho and Gaza, with Arafat as chairman. He was elected president in 1996 and headed the Legislative Council, working to regain further territory and to establish a Palestinian state. He shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994. |
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