YASSER ARAFAT

'Mohammed Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini' (August 24, 1929 – November 11, 2004; ), popularly known as 'Yasser Arafat', was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) (1968–2004) and President of the Palestinian National Authority (PA) (1993–2004).^[1] In 1994, Arafat received the Nobel Peace Prize together with Yitzhak Rabin, and Shimon Peres, for the negotiation of the 1993 Oslo Peace Accord.^[2] Arafat has been widely recognized for leading the Fatah organization, which he founded sometime in 1958-1959.^[3]
From leading his forces in civil wars and uprisings against Israel, Jordan and Lebanon, to his role in establishing peace with the Israelis and an independent state for the Palestinians, Arafat lived a very controversial lifestyle. The majority of the Palestinian, Arab and Islamic populace regardless of their political ideology or faction viewed him as a heroic freedom fighter and martyr who symbolized the national aspirations of his people.^[4] However, most Israelis have described him as an unrepentant terrorist.^[5] Throughout Arafat's lengthy career, his political rivals which included Islamists and several PLO leftists, denounced him for being corrupt or too submissive in his concessions to the Israeli government. From Defender to Dictator, , Said K., Aburish, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998,

Early life

Birth & Childhood

Arafat was born in Cairo to Palestinian parents.Not certain; Disputed; Most sources, including Andrew Walker, Alan Hart and Said K. Aburish indicate Cairo as Arafat's place of birth, but others list his birthplace as Jerusalem as well as Gaza. See here and here for more information. Some also believe that the Jerusalem birthplace might have been a rumor created by the KGB [2].
Arafat's father, Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini, was a Gazan with an Egyptian mother. He worked as a textile merchant in Cairo's culturally mixed Sakanini District. It should be noted that Arafat's clan, al-Husseini was based in Gaza and should not be confused with the well-known al-Husseini clan of Jerusalem. However since the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husseini and the Palestinian nationalist fighter Abdel al-Qadr al-Husseini belonged to the clan, he at times, claimed to be related for the purpose of entwining his heritage with Palestinian political lore. Arafat was the second youngest of seven children and was along with his younger brother Fathi the only offspring born in Cairo. His mother Zahwa Abul Saoud died in 1933 when Arafat was five years of age from a kidney ailment. Arafat's first connection to Jerusalem came when his father, seeing himself as unable to raise seven children sent him and his brother Fathi to their mother's family in the Old City. There they lived with their uncle Selim Abul Saoud for four years. In 1937 their father recalled them where they would now be taken care of by their older sister Inam. Arafat who had a deteriorating relationship with his father, did not attend his funeral in 1952, nor did he visit his grave upon his return to Gaza.^[6]

Education and 1948 Arab Israeli War

In 1947, Arafat enrolled in the University of King Fuad I, which was later renamed Cairo University after a coup orchestrated by the Free Officers Movement which was led by Gamal Abdel Nasser, overthrowing King Farouk I in 1952. He graduated from the university in 1950 with a pass grade. He later claimed to have sought a better understanding of Judaism and Zionism by engaging in discussions with Jews and reading publications by Theodor Herzl and other prominent Zionists.^[7] However during this period in his life he had become an Palestinian nationalist and began procuring weapons to be smuggled into the former British Mandate of Palestine, for the use of irregulars in the Arab Higher Committee and the Holy War Army militias.^[8] 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 in the name of Palestinian independence. He and his colleagues were later disarmed and turned back by Egyptian military forces, who refused to allow them to enter the war zone.^[6] Arafat felt that he had been "betrayed by these [Arab] regimes".
After returning to the University, Arafat joined the Muslim Brotherhood and served as president of the Union of Palestinian Students from 1952 to 1956. By 1956, Arafat had graduated with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering and was called to duty to fight with Egyptian forces during the Suez Crisis, however he never actually partook in any fighting on the battlefield.^[10] Later, in 1956, at a conference in Prague, he donned the keffiyeh, a solid white head-dress unlike the checkered one he adopted in Kuwait, which was to become his emblem in the future.^[6]

Formation of Fatah

As a result of the Suez Crisis in 1956, Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser agreed to allow UNEF to establish itself in the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip causing the expulsion of all guerrilla or "fedayeen" forces there, including Arafat. Arafat although originally struggling to attain a visa to Canada and later Saudi Arabia, both attempts were unsuccessful.^[10]^[13] In 1957, he applied for attainment of a visa to Kuwait, which was then a British protectorate, and was approved based on his brief work in civil engineering. There he encountered two Palestinian friends he had met in the Cairo University, Salah Khalaf (''Abu Iyad'') and Khalil al-Wazir (''Abu Jihad'') both official members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood whom would play the role of Arafat's right-hand men in future politics. Abu Iyad traveled with Arafat to Kuwait in late in 1957 and Abu Jihad, also working as a teacher, had been living there not too long before them.^[3]^[15] In 1960, Abu Iyad helped Arafat obtain a temporary job as a schoolteacher. As Arafat began to develop friendships with other Palestinian refugees from Gaza whom he also had known from his Cairo days, he gradually founded the group that became known as Fatah. There is no exact date of Fatah's establishment, however in the 1958-1960 period the group began to emerge from a Palestinian nationalist magazine, ''Filastununa, Nida al-Hayat'' which was written and edited by the organization's founding members. 'F'a'T'a'H' is a reverse acronym of the Arabic name ''Harakat al-Tahrir al-Watani al-Filastini'' which translates into "The Palestinian National Liberation Movement".^[3]^[17] Fatah is also similar to the word ''Fatah'', which was used in early Islamic times to refer to "conquest".^[3]
Differing from other Palestinian political or guerrilla organizations, Fatah dedicated itself to the liberation of Palestine and subsequent destruction of Israel by an armed struggle carried out by the Palestinians themselves whereas most other Palestinian groups firmly believed in a united Arab response.^[3]^[20] It was for this reason that Arafat's organization was never committed to the ideologies of major Arab national governments of the time, unlike other Palestinian factions that formed satellites of nations such as Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria and others.^[21]
In accordance with his own ideology, Arafat generally refused to accept donations to his organization from major Arab governments unlike most other Palestinian factions in order to act independently of them. At the same time he certainly did not want to alienate them and wanted their undivided support by not posing a threat by making alliances with individual ideologies. He worked hard in Kuwait however, to establish the groundwork for Fatah's future financial support by enlisting contributions from the many wealthy Palestinians working there and other Gulf States such as Qatar, where he met Mahmoud Abbas. These businessmen and oil workers generously contributed to the Fatah organization from their well-off salaries. Arafat continued this process in other Arab countries such as Libya and Syria.^[3]^[23]
It was during the 1962-1966 period Arafat and his closest companions immigrated to Syria, a country sharing a border with Israel and just having seceded from a union with Nasser's Egypt. Here he would be able to recruit members with a higher outcome and eventually commence his armed struggle against Israel. It is assumed by this time period the Fatah organization had approximately three hundred members but no fighters. Gradually however, Fatah's manpower increased by offering much higher salaries to members of the Palestine Liberation Army (PLA), a military branch of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). On December 31, 1964, under the name of al-Assifa, the armed branch of Fatah at the time, Arafat's fighters unsuccessfully attempted to infiltrate Israel as they were intercepted and detained by Lebanese security forces. Several successful and failed raids, many times personally led by Arafat himself, took place after this incident with Fatah's poorly trained and equipped fighters.^[3]
On November 13, 1966 Israel, in response to a Fatah-implemented roadside bomb attack, that killed three of its security forces near the southern Green Line border, launched a major raid against the Jordanian administered West Bank town of as-Samu. After skirmishing with Jordanian forces, the Israelis retreated, however sixty Palestinian civilians were killed and about one-hundred twenty-five homes were destroyed. This raid was one of several factors that led to the 1967 Six Day War.^[25] On June 5, 1967 Israel launched an air raid against the Egypt's air force commencing the Six Day War which ended in Arab defeat and Israel seizing several Arab territories including the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Although Nasser and his Arab allies were defeated, Arafat and Fatah were in a way, victorious as now the majority of the Palestinian populace that once sided and sympathized with individual Arab governments would now look to a "Palestinian" resolution to their dilemma.^[6]

Battle of Karameh

In 1968, Fatah was the target of an Israeli Defense Forces operation in the Jordanian village of Karameh where the Fatah headquarters as well as a mid-sized Palestinian refugee camp were located. Also, the town's name is the Arabic word for "dignity" which certainly elevated its symbolism to the Arab people in general, especially after the Arab defeat in 1967. The operation was in response to attacks, which included the firing of rockets by Fatah and other Palestinian militias into the occupied West Bank. The operation was not planned clandestinely and the government of Jordan as well as a number of Fatah militants informed Arafat of Israel's large-scale military preparations. Upon hearing of the news, many guerrilla groups in the area including George Habash's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Nayef Hawatmeh's Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) withdrew their forces from the town, but on the orders of Arafat, Fatah remained and the Jordanian Army agreed to back them militarily if heavy fighting ensued.^[27]
On the night of March 21, the IDF attacked Karameh with heavy weaponry, armored vehicles and fighter jets. Surprisingly, Fatah held its ground and as Israel's forces intensified their campaign, the Jordanian Army became involved causing the Israelis to retreat in order to avoid a full-scaled war. By the end of the battle 150 Palestinian militants and perhaps civilians were killed as well as 20 Jordanian soldiers and 29 Israeli soldiers. Despite the higher Arab death toll, Fatah considered themselves victorious because of the Israeli army's almost immediate withdrawal. Arafat himself was on the battlefield but it cannot be totally verified whether he actually took part in any combat or wrote up any defense strategies. However it is confirmed by his allies as well as by Israeli intelligence that throughout the battle he urged his men to hold their ground and continue fighting.^[28]^[27]
The battle was covered in detail by ''Time'', and Arafat's face appeared on the cover, bringing the wider world their first image of the man.^[30] Amid the post-war environment, the profiles of Arafat and Fatah were raised by this important turning point, as he came to be regarded as a national hero who dared confront Israel. With a mass applauding from the Arab World, financial donations significantly increased and Fatah's weaponry and equipment improved. Many young Arabs including thousands of non-Palestinians joined the ranks of Fatah and the group's numbers swelled.^[31]
By the late 1960s, Fatah had come to dominate the PLO, and at the Palestinian National Council in Cairo on February 3, 1969 Arafat was appointed Palestine Liberation Organization chairman, replacing Yahya Hammuda who was acting for Ahmad Shukeiri who resigned on December 1967. Arafat became commander-in-chief of the Palestinian Revolutionary Forces two years later and, in 1973, the head of the PLO's political department.^[27]

Jordan

In the 1960s, tensions between Palestinians and the Jordanian government had greatly increased; heavily armed Arab resistance elements had created a virtual ''"state within a state"'' in Jordan, eventually controlling several strategic positions in that country, including the oil refinery near az-Zarqa as well as the bulk of the Palestinian refugee camps and several neighborhoods and other areas in the city of Amman and Irbid. After their inspirations from the battle of Karameh, Fatah and other Palestinian militias gained a certain confidence or pride and began taking control of civil life in Jordan. They did this by setting up road blocks, publicly humiliating Jordanian police forces, molesting women and levying illegal taxes all of which either Arafat condoned or ignored. King Hussein considered this a growing threat to his kingdom's sovereignty and security and attempted to disarm the militias. This led to the eruption of open fighting in June 1970.^[6]
Other Arab governments attempted to negotiate a peaceful resolution including Gamal Abdel Nasser who led the first emergency Arab League summit in Cairo on September 21. However continuing militant actions in Jordan, such as the destruction by the PFLP, on September 12, of three international airliners hijacked and held in Dawson's Field located 30 miles east of Amman, forced the Jordanian government to take action to regain control over its territory.^[34]
On September 16, King Hussein declared martial law. On that same day, Arafat became supreme commander of the Palestine Liberation Army (PLA), the regular military force of the PLO. In the ensuing civil war, the PLO had the active support of Syrian President Salah Jadid, who authorized a contribution force of around 200 tanks into Jordan to aid them however the country's air force commander Hafez al-Assad, who was at odds with Arafat, refused to aid PLO forces with air support. The fighting was primarily between the Jordanian army and PLA; the U.S. Navy dispatched the Sixth Fleet to the eastern Mediterranean and Israel agreed to deploy troops to aid Hussein, if necessary. By September 24, the Jordanian army achieved dominance and the PLA agreed to a series of ceasefires.^[35] The Jordanian army inflicted heavy casualties upon the Palestinians, including civilians, who suffered approximately 3,400 fatalities. Arafat and a number of his Fatah forces, including two of his higher commanders, Abu Iyad and Abu Jihad, were forced into the northern corner of Jordan near the town of Jerash bordering Syria and Israel. With the help of Munib Masri, a pro-Palestinian Jordanian cabinet member and Fahd al-Khomeimi, the Saudi ambassador to Jordan, Arafat with nearly two thousand of his fighters managed to enter Syria. From there they crossed the border into Lebanon to join Fatah forces in that country, where they would now set up their new headquarters.^[36]

Lebanon

Black September and official recognition of the Palestinian people

Following Black September and the expulsion from Jordan, Arafat relocated the PLO to Lebanon. Because of Lebanon's weak central government, the PLO was able to operate virtually as an independent state. The PLO mounted intermittent cross-border attacks against Israeli targets, including civilians, from there.
In September 1972, the Black September group kidnapped and killed 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games. A number of sources, including Mohammed Oudeh (''Abu Daoud''), one of the masterminds of what was later donned as the Munich massacre and Benny Morris, a prominent Israeli historian, have stated that Black September was an armed branch of Fatah used for paramilitary operations. According to a book Abu Daoud wrote in 1999, "Arafat was briefed on plans for the Munich hostage-taking." The killings were internationally condemned.^[37]
In 1973-4, Arafat closed Black September down, ordering the PLO to withdraw from acts of violence outside Israel, West Bank and the Gaza Strip.^[38] Also in 1974, the Palestinian National Council approved the Ten Point Program which was drawn up by Arafat and his advisers, and represented or at least resembled a compromise with the Israelis. It stated that there be a Palestinian national authority over every part of liberated Palestinian territory.^[39] This caused discontent among several of the PLO factions and in response to the PNC approval, these factions including the PFLP and the DFLP formed a breakaway organization, the Rejectionist Front. From Defender to Dictator, , Said K., Aburish, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998, The Fatah movement continued to launch attacks against Israeli civilians and security forces from Lebanon moreover, in the late 1970s numerous leftist Palestinian organizations appeared on the armed front against Israel, which carried out attacks against civilian targets both within Israel (including a school) and outside of it. Israel and the United States claimed that Arafat was in ultimate control over these organizations and hence had not abandoned terrorism.^[40]
Israel and the US also alleged that Arafat was involved in the Khartoum diplomatic assassinations in which 5 diplomats and 5 others were killed, however Arafat denied any involvement in the operation commenced by the Black September group. Nonetheless, a 1973 United States Department of State document, declassified in 2006, concluded "The Khartoum operation was planned and carried out with the full knowledge and personal approval of Yasser Arafat."^[41]
In the same year, Arafat became the first representative of a non-governmental organization to address a plenary session of the UN General Assembly, and Arab heads of state recognized the PLO as "the sole legitimate spokesman of the Palestinian people." In his UN address, Arafat condemned Zionism, but said, "Today I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand." His speech increased international support for the Palestinian cause. The PLO was admitted to full membership in the Arab League in 1976.^[42]

Fatah involvement in Lebanese Civil War

Arafat in Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon, 1978

Arafat and Fatah played an important role in the Lebanese Civil War, although were hesitant at first with taking sides in the conflict. Succumbing to the pressures from PLO sub-groups such as the PFLP, DFLP and the PLF, Arafat aligned the PLO with the Lebanese Nasserist Sunni group, al-Murabitun and the primarily Druze, Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) a major element of the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) led by Kamal Jumblatt who had a friendly relationship with Arafat. Although originally aligned with Arafat's Fatah group, Syrian President, al-Assad fearing a loss of influence in Lebanon, switched sides and sent in his army as well as the Syrian backed PLO forces, as-Sa'iqa and the PFLP-GC to fight alongside the radical right-wing Maronite Christian Phalangists or simply against Arafat's forces.
PLO attacks against Israel also grew dramatically during the 1970s and in response the Israel Defense Forces launched Operation Litani in 1978, with the goal of taking control of Southern Lebanon up to the Litani River. The IDF succeeded militarily and Arafat with his PLO forces retreated north into Beirut. After an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, PLO forces fired rockets into the Israel occupied Galilee prompting another Israeli invasion in 1982. Beirut was soon besieged and bombarded by the IDF, Arafat declared the city to be the "second Stalingrad." To end the siege the United States and European governments brokered an agreement guaranteeing safe passage for Arafat and the PLO guarded by a multi-national force of 800 US Marines supported by the US Navy to exile in Tunis. At the siege's end Beirut ended up in much ruin with close to 17,000 civilians dead.^[43]
The Civil War's first phase ended for Arafat with the siege and fall of the refugee camp of Tel al-Zaatar. Arafat himself narrowly escaped with assistance from Saudi and Kuwaiti diplomats.^[44]
Arafat actually returned to Lebanon a year after he was evicted from Beirut, this time establishing himself in Tripoli in northern Lebanon. Instead of being expelled by Israel, in this case, Arafat was expelled by a fellow Palestinian working under Hafez al-Assad. Arafat did not return to Lebanon personally after his second expulsion, though many Fatah fighters did.

Tunisia

After his expulsion from Lebanon, Arafat and his fighters settled in the city of Tunis, the capital of Tunisia which became their center of operations until 1993.
Arafat again narrowly survived an Israeli assassination attempt in 1985. In Operation Wooden Leg, Israeli Air Force F-15s bombed his headquarters in Tunis leaving 73 people dead; Arafat had gone out jogging that morning.^[45]
During the 1980s, Arafat received financial assistance from Libya, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, which allowed him to reconstruct the badly-battered PLO. This was particularly useful during the First Intifada in December 1987. The Intifada began as an uprising of the Palestinian youth against Israeli occupation and in response to an incident in the Erez checkpoint where an Israeli truck unintentionally hit a group of Palestinian laborers killing four of them. However, within weeks Arafat was attempting to direct the revolt, and Israelis believe that it was mainly because of Fatah forces in the West Bank led by Abu Jihad, that the civil unrest was able to continue for the duration. From Defender to Dictator, , Said K., Aburish, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998, The most common tactic used by the Palestinians was the throwing of stones at IDF tanks which became a symbol of the uprising. The local leadership in Beit Sahour, a large town adjacent to Bethlehem commenced non-violent protests against Israeli occupation by applying tax resistance and other boycotts. Israel responded by blockading the town and confiscating large sums of money from house to house raids. From Defender to Dictator, , Said K., Aburish, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998, ^[46] However, in its last years, armed Palestinian Islamist groups in particular, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), began targeting Israeli civilians with a new tactic, suicide-bombing. Also, as the intifada waned towards its end, incidents of civil strife in the Palestinian territories became recurring events. From Defender to Dictator, , Said K., Aburish, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998, On April 16, 1988, while in Tunisia, Abu Jihad was assassinated by an Israeli hit-squad. Arafat publicly mourned Abu Jihad, the PLO counterweight to local West Bank leadership and led a funeral procession for him in Damascus. From Defender to Dictator, , Said K., Aburish, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998,
On November 15, 1988, the PLO proclaimed the independent State of Palestine. In speeches on December 13 and December 14, 1988, Arafat accepted UN Security Council Resolution 242, Israel's right "to exist in peace and security" and renounced "terrorism in all its forms, including state terrorism".^[47]^[48] Arafat's statements were encouraged by the US administration, which had long insisted on these statements as a necessary starting point for official discussions between the US and the PLO. Arafat's statement indicated a shift from one of the PLO's primary aims — the destruction of Israel (as in the Palestinian National Covenant) — towards the establishment of two separate entities, an Israeli state within the 1949 armistice lines and an Arab state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. On April 2, 1989, Arafat was elected by the Central Council of the Palestine National Council, the governing body of the PLO, to be the president of the proclaimed State of Palestine.
During the 1991 Madrid Conference, Israel conducted open negotiations with the PLO for the first time. Prior to the Gulf War of 1991, Arafat opposed the US attack on Iraq, alienating many of the Arab states that backed the attack, and leading to the US disregarding his claims of being a partner for peace.^[49]
Arafat narrowly escaped death again on April 7, 1992, when his aircraft crash-landed in the Libyan Desert during a sandstorm. The pilot and several passengers were killed, and Arafat suffered several broken bones and other injuries.^[50]

Palestinian Authority and peace negotiations

1993 Oslo Accords

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

In the early 1990s, Arafat and leading Fatah officials engaged the Israelis in a series of secret talks and negotiations that led to the 1993 Oslo Accords. The agreement called for the implementation of Palestinian self-rule in portions of the West Bank and Gaza Strip over a five year period and a gradual disengagement of Israeli settlements in those particular areas. A Palestinian police force would be permitted and formed from local recruits and Palestinians abroad to patrol the areas of self-rule. Authority over the fields of education and culture, social welfare, direct taxation and tourism among others would be transferred to the Palestinian interim government. In addition, both parties agreed on forming a committee that would establish cooperation and coordination dealing with specific economic sectors, including utilities, industry, trade and communication.^[51]^[52]
Prior to signing the accords, Arafat as Chairman of the PLO and as its official representative signed two letters renouncing violence and officially recognizing Israel on September 9, 1993. In return Prime Minister Rabin, on behalf of Israel, officially recognized the PLO.^[53]
The following year Arafat was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin. Arafat returned to the Palestinian territories as a hero to the members and supporters of Fatah but a traitor and collaborator to other factions, in particular, the Islamists and Arab nationalists which included the majority of the Palestinian left. From Defender to Dictator, , Said K., Aburish, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998, In 1994, Arafat moved to Gaza City, one of the territories controlled by the Palestinian Authority (PA) — the provisional entity created by the Oslo Accords.^[2]

Palestinian elections and other peace agreements

On January 20, 1996, Arafat was elected president of the PA, with an overwhelming 88.2% majority (the only other candidate was Samiha Khalil). Independent international observers reported the elections to have been free and fair. However, because Hamas and other opposition movements chose not to participate in the presidential elections, the choices were limited. Arafat's landslide victory guaranteed Fatah, 51 of the 88 seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council.^[6] The following elections scheduled for January 2002 were later postponed; the stated reason being inability to campaign due to the emergency conditions imposed by the al-Aqsa intifada and IDF incursions and restrictions on freedom of movement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
After 1996, Arafat's title as Palestinian Authority leader was "head" (Arabic, ''Ra'is''). Israel and the US interpret the title as "chairman" while Palestinians and the UN translate the title as "president". The mass media uses both terms.
In mid-1996, Benjamin Netanyahu was elected Prime Minister of Israel by the narrowest of margins. Palestinian-Israeli relations grew even more hostile as a consequence of continued conflict.^[56] Despite the Israel-PLO accord, Netanyahu opposed the idea of Palestinian statehood.^[57] In 1998, US President Bill Clinton persuaded the two leaders to meet. The resulting Wye River Memorandum of October 23, 1998 detailed the steps to be taken by the Israeli government and PA to complete the peace process.^[58]

Yasser Arafat, Ehud Barak and Bill Clinton at Camp David 2000 Summit

Arafat continued negotiations with Netanyahu's successor, Ehud Barak, at the Camp David 2000 Summit. Due partly to his own politics (Barak was from the leftist Labor Party, whereas Netanyahu was from the rightist Likud Party) and partly due to insistence for compromise by American President Bill Clinton, Ehud Barak offered Arafat a Palestinian state in 73% of the West Bank and all of the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian percentage of sovereignty would extend to 90% over a ten to twenty-five year period. In the negotiation over Jerusalem's sovereignty, Barak insisted on annexing "Greater Jerusalem" cities such as Ma'ale Adumim and Givat Ze'ev to Israel while handing over control of certain small towns and cities that had been attributed to Jerusalem after 1967. Israel's proposal included dismantling sixty-three settlements in the West Bank and all settlements in the Gaza Strip. Israel would control the border between what would have been the newly created state of Palestine and Jordan. This however would only last for a 10 year period until the PLO gained enough trust to run its own border. Also included in the offer was a return of a small number of refugees and compensation for the rest. In a move widely criticized, even by a member of his own negotiating team and cabinet, Nabil Amr, Arafat rejected Barak's offer and refused to make a counter-offer.^[59]
However negotiations continued at the Taba summit in January 2001. This time Ehud Barak pulled out of the talks to campaign in the Israeli elections. Throughout 2001, the al-Aqsa Intifada, or Second Palestinian Intifada grew in intensity and following the election of Ariel Sharon, the peace process took a steep downfall. Ariel Sharon, Israel's Prime Minister, confined Arafat to his Mukata'a headquarters in Ramallah, while George W. Bush, president of the United States, claimed that Arafat was "an obstacle to the peace". The European Union, on the other hand, opposed these tough policies.

Political survival, marginalization and controversy

Arafat's long personal and political survival was taken by most Western commentators as a sign of his mastery of asymmetric warfare and his skill as a tactician, given the extremely dangerous nature of politics of the Middle East and the frequency of assassinations. Some commentators believe his survival was largely due to Israel's fear that he could become a martyr for the Palestinian cause if he was to be assassinated or even arrested by Israel. Others believe that Israel kept Arafat alive because it came to fear Arafat less than Hamas and the other Islamist movements gaining support over Arafat's secular organization. The complex and fragile web of relations between the US, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and other Arab states also contributed to Arafat's longevity as the leader of the Palestinians.^[60]
Arafat's ability to adapt to new tactical and political situations, was perhaps exemplified by the rise of the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad organizations, Islamist groups espousing rejectionist opposition to Israel and employing new tactics such as suicide bombing, often intentionally targeting non-military targets, such as malls and movie theaters, to increase the psychological damage. In the 1990s, these groups seemed to threaten Arafat's capacity to hold together a unified secular nationalist organization with a goal of statehood. They appeared to be out of Arafat's influence and control and were actively fighting with Arafat's Fatah group. Some allege that activities of these groups were tolerated by Arafat as a means of applying pressure on Israel.^[61] Some Israeli government officials opined in 2002 that the armed Fatah sub-group, al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades commenced attacks towards Israel in order to compete with Hamas.^[62]
On May 6, 2002, the Israeli government released a report, based in part on documents captured during the Israeli occupation of Arafat's Ramallah headquarters, with copies of papers signed by Arafat authorizing funding for the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades' activities.^[63]
In March 2002, the Arab League made an offer to recognize Israel in exchange for an Israeli retreat from all territories captured in the Six-Day War and statehood for Palestine and Arafat's Palestinian Authority. Supporters of this declaration saw this offer, which included recognition of Israel by the Arab states, as a historic opportunity for comprehensive peace in the region, while critics of this offer say that it would constitute a heavy blow to Israel's security, while not even guaranteeing Israel the cessation of suicide bombing attacks. Israel ignored what it deemed to be a facile offer.^[64]
Shortly afterward, attacks carried out by Palestinian militants killed more than 135 Israeli civilians. Ariel Sharon, who had previously demanded that Arafat speak out strongly in Arabic against suicide bombings, declared that Arafat "assisted the terrorists and made himself an enemy of Israel and irrelevant to any peace negotiations". Israel then launched Operation Defensive Shield, a major military offensive into the West Bank.
Persistent attempts by the Israeli government to identify another Palestinian leader to represent the Palestinian people failed; and Arafat was enjoying the support of groups that, given his own history, would normally have been quite wary of dealing with him or of supporting him. Marwan Barghouti emerged as a possible replacement during the al-Aqsa Intifada but Israel had him arrested and sentenced to 4 life terms.
Arafat was finally allowed to leave his compound on May 3, 2002, after intense negotiations led to a settlement: six militants wanted by Israel, who had been holed up with Arafat in his compound, would not be turned over to Israel, but neither would they be held in custody by the Palestinian Authority. Rather, a combination of British and American security personnel would ensure that the wanted men remained imprisoned in Jericho. With that, and a promise that he would issue a call in Arabic to the Palestinians to halt attacks on Israelis, Arafat was released. He issued such a call on May 8, 2002, but, as was the case before, it was largely ignored. Many feel this was because he secretly supported the attacks, a belief that was widespread among all the Palestinian militant organizations who did not take Arafat's call seriously.
On July 18, 2004, in an interview in ''Le Figaro'', U.S. President George W. Bush dismissed Arafat as a negotiating partner: "The real problem is that there is no leadership that is able to say 'help us establish a state and we will fight terror and answer the needs of the Palestinians'".^[65] This decision was criticized by the European Union and Russia, components of the quartet leading negotiations between Israel and the PLO.
Arafat had a mixed relationship at best with the leaders of other Arab nations. However, he remained by far the most popular Arab leader among the general populace and was for many years the only elected Arab leader. The most frequent criticism of Arafat by the Western and Israeli media was that he was corrupt to the detriment of the Palestinian people. Arafat's support from Arab leaders tended to increase whenever he was pressured by Israel; for example, in 2003 when Israel declared it had taken the decision, in principle, to remove him from the Israeli-controlled West Bank.

Financial dealings

In August 2002, the Israeli Military Intelligence Chief claimed that Arafat's personal wealth was USD $1.3 billion.^[66] However, he provided no clinching evidence for this claim.
In 2003 the International Monetary Fund (IMF) conducted an audit of the Palestinian Authority and stated that Arafat diverted $900 million in public funds to a special bank account controlled by Arafat and the PA Chief Economic Financial adviser. However, the IMF did not claim that there were any improprieties and it specifically stated that most of the funds have been used to invest in Palestinian assets, both internally and abroad.^[67]
In 2003, a team of American accountants — hired by Arafat's own finance ministry — began examining Arafat's finances. The team claimed that part of the Palestinian leader's wealth was in a secret portfolio worth close to $1 billion — with investments in companies like a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Ramallah, a Tunisian cell phone company and venture capital funds in the US and the Cayman Islands. The head of the investigation stated that "although the money for the portfolio came from public funds like Palestinian taxes, virtually none of it was used for the Palestinian people; it was all controlled by Arafat. And none of these dealings were made public." Though Arafat always lived modestly, Dennis Ross, former Middle East negotiator for Presidents Bush and Clinton, stated that Arafat's "walking-around money" financed a vast patronage system known as neopatrimonialism. According to Salam Fayyad, a former World Bank official whom Arafat appointed finance minister in 2002, Arafat's commodity monopolies could accurately be seen as gouging his own people, "especially in Gaza which is poorer, which is something that is totally unacceptable and immoral."^[68] According to Hanan Ashrawi, a former member of Arafat's cabinet, "Getting Mr. Arafat to hand over the holdings was like pulling teeth. Mr. Arafat gave in to pressure from aid donors such as the European Union and from his finance minister, Salam Fayyad, the IMF's former representative in the territories. They demanded that Mr. Arafat turn over the investments as a condition of further aid."^[69]
An investigation by the European Union into claims that EU funds were misused by the Palestinian Authority has found no evidence that funds were diverted to finance terrorist activities. The EU "remains convinced that deepening reform in the PA and improving its financial management and audit capacities is the best preventive strategy against the misuse of funds and corruption. The reform of the financial management of the PA is the objective of several key conditions attached to the EU financial assistance."^[70] Fuad Shubaki, former financial aide to Arafat, told the Israeli Shin Bet that Arafat used several million dollars of aid money to buy weapons and support militant groups.^[71]
Claims by unnamed sources in the PA Finance Ministry stated that Arafat's wife, Suha, receives a stipend of $100,000 each month from the PA budget. In an interview with the London-based newspaper ''Al Hayat'', Mrs. Arafat accused Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of spreading rumors about money-laundering involved the transfer of funds to herself to distract media attention away from corruption allegations against himself. In October 2003, French government prosecutors opened a money-laundering probe of Suha Arafat after Tracfin alerted the prosecutors to untaxed transfers of nearly $1.27 million each with some regularity from Switzerland to Mrs. Arafat's accounts in Paris.

Illness and death

First reports of Arafat's treatment by his doctors for what his spokesman said was the 'flu' came on October 25, 2004 after he vomited during a meeting. His condition deteriorated in the following days and he fell unconscious for 10 minutes on October 27. Following visits by other doctors, including teams from Tunisia, Jordan, and Egypt, and agreement by Israel not to block his return, Arafat was taken on October 29 aboard a French government jet to the Percy military hospital in Clamart, near Paris. According to one of his doctors, Arafat was suffering from Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), an immunologically-mediated decrease in the number of circulating platelets to abnormally low levels.^[72] On November 3 he lapsed into a gradually deepening coma. In the ensuing days, Arafat's health was the subject of some speculation, with suspicion that he was suffering from poisoning or AIDS. Various sources speculated that Arafat was comatose, in a "vegetative state", or dead. Palestinian authorities and Arafat's Jordanian doctor denied reports that Arafat was brain dead and had been kept on life support.
A controversy erupted between officials of the Palestinian Authority and Suha Arafat, Yasser Arafat's wife. On November 8, officials of the Palestinian Authority traveled to France to see Yasser Arafat. Suha Arafat stated "They are trying to bury Abu Ammar [Arafat] alive". Palestinian officials were reported to regret that the news about Yasser Arafat was "filtered" by his wife. French law forbids physicians from discussing the condition of their patients with anybody with the exception, in case of grave prognosis, of close relatives.^[73] Accordingly, all communications concerning Yasser Arafat's health had to be authorized by Arafat's wife.
On November 9, at 10 AM, chief surgeon Estripeau of Percy reported that Arafat's condition had worsened, and that he had fallen into a deeper coma. On November 10, a "high religious dignitary" visited Arafat and declared that it was out of the question to disconnect Arafat from life support machines, since, according to him, such an action would be prohibited by Islam.
Arafat was pronounced dead at 03:30 AM UTC time on November 11 at the age of 75. The exact cause of his illness is unknown. Sheikh Taissir Tamimi, the head of the Islamic court of the Palestinian territories, who held a vigil at his bedside described the scene as, "a very painful scene. There was blood everywhere on his face. The blood was coming from every possible place. My first reaction when I saw the scene was that I didn't understand what was going on. I closed my eyes, and I started reading from the Quran...". When his death was announced, the Palestinian people went into a state of mourning, with Qur'anic mourning prayers emitted from loudspeakers from mosques, and tires burning in the street as a sign of remorse. The PA declared an official mourning that lasted for forty days. However a straightforward linear response to the death of Arafat, involved in controversy, conflict and the struggle for national identity as he had been, was unlikely. "Many Palestinians will view the death of Yasser Arafat with a mixture of sadness and a wish that the Palestinian Authority he led, had done much more to end the poverty and oppression that blights their lives".^[74]
In September 2005, the Israeli newspaper ''Haaretz'' reported that French experts could not determine the cause of Arafat's death. The paper further quoted an Israeli AIDS expert who claimed that Arafat bore all the symptoms of AIDS, a hypothesis later rejected by the ''New York Times''. Dr. Ashraf al-Kurdi, a personal physician of Arafat for the past 20 years, later declared that nothing in Arafat's medical report mentioned the existence of such a disease. Another "senior Israeli physician" claimed in the ''Haaretz'' article that it was "a classic case of food poisoning", probably caused by a meal eaten four hours before he fell ill on October 12 that may have contained a toxin such as ricin rather than the standard bacterial poisoning. However, in the same week that the Haaretz report was published, the ''New York Times'' published a separate report also based on access to Arafat's medical records which claimed that it was highly unlikely that Arafat had AIDS or food poisoning. Both ''Haaretz'' and the ''New York Times'' further speculated that the cause of death may have been an infection of an unknown nature or origin. However, rumors of Arafat's poisoning have remained popular, especially among the Arab populace, but also to an extent in the rest of the world. Dr. al-Kurdi, who also treats the Hashemite kings, lamented the fact that the leader's wife, Suha had refused an autopsy, which would have answered many questions in the cause of death case. Calling for the creation of an independent commission to carry out investigations concerning Arafat's suspicious death, Dr. al-Kurdi declared to ''Haaretz'' on September 9, 2005 that "any doctor would tell you that these are the symptoms of a poisoning".^[75] Dr. al-Kurdi told the Associated Press that Arafat had the AIDS virus and that "it was given to him to cover up the poison".^[76]

Aftermath

Arafat's tomb in Ramallah

Israel refused Arafat's wish to be buried in or near the al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem citing widespread security concerns.^[77] Following a state funeral in Cairo, attended by many world leaders, Arafat was "temporarily" laid to rest on November 12 within his former headquarters in Ramallah in the West Bank watched by a large crowd. In the morning (around 3AM) of November 13, Arafat was reburied. Sheikh Taissir Tamimi discovered that Arafat was not buried properly and in a coffin, which is not in accordance with the Muslim religion.^[78]
On November 16, 2004, the ''Canard Enchaîné'' newspaper reported alleged leaks of information by unnamed medical sources at Percy hospital having had access to Arafat and his medical file. According to the newspaper, the doctors at Percy hospital suspected, from Arafat's arrival, grave lesions of the liver responsible for an alteration of the composition of the blood, thus Arafat was placed in a hematology service. Leukemia was soundly ruled out. According to the same source, the reason why this diagnosis of cirrhosis could not be made public was that, in the mind of the general public, cirrhosis is generally associated with the consequences of alcohol abuse – even though the diagnosis was not of an alcoholic cirrhosis and Arafat was not known for consuming any alcohol, there would have probably been rumors. The source then explained that Arafat's conditions of life during the last three years did not improve the situation: Arafat did not get health care appropriate to his state. Thus, according to the source, the probable causes of the disease are multiple; Arafat's coma was a consequence of the worsened cirrhosis. Finally, he had a brain hemorrhage and died on November 11, 2004. The French newspaper, ''Le Monde'', quoted doctors as saying that he suffered from "an unusual blood disease and a liver problem".
Paris deputy Claude Goasguen asked for a parliamentary inquiry commission on the death of Arafat in an attempt to quell rumors. On November 17, the French government insisted that there was no evidence Arafat had been poisoned, otherwise a criminal investigation would have necessarily been opened.^[79]
After Arafat's death, the French Ministry of Defense said that Arafat's medical file would only be transmitted to his next of kin. It was determined that Arafat's nephew and PA envoy to the UN, Nasser al-Qudwa, was a close enough relative, thus working around Suha Arafat's mutism on her husband's illness. On November 22, Nasser al-Qudwa was given a copy of Arafat's 558-page medical file by the French Ministry of Defense.^[80]
A controversy erupted around Arafat's death certificate. While Arafat's own personal biography list Cairo as his place of birth, French authorities chose to note his place of birth as Jerusalem instead. French officials claimed that Jerusalem was specified by the documents provided to the French ministry of foreign affairs when Arafat's wife acquired French citizenship; however France has refused all requests to make these documents public. French officials flatly refused Israel's request to provide proof that Arafat was born in Jerusalem and not Cairo.^[81] The Simon Wiesenthal Center for International Jewish Human Rights later called on France "to investigate the circumstances of the false and incomplete registration of Arafat's death certificate, to correct the erroneous details of his birthplace, adding the truth of his parentage and the cause of his death."^[82]
Many of Arafat's biographers as well as Egyptian authorities, have always maintained that Arafat's correct birthplace was Cairo.Not certain; Disputed; Most sources including Andrew Walker, Alan Hart and Said K. Aburish indicate Cairo as Arafat's place of birth, but others list his birthplace as Jerusalem as well as Gaza. See here and here for more information. Some also believe that the Jerusalem birthplace might have been a rumor created by the KGB [4]. So far, no party to the controversy has brought the case to a court to ask for a rectification of the certificate.^[83]
Upon Arafat's death, Speaker Rawhi Fattouh succeeded Arafat as interim President of the Palestinian Authority. PLO Secretary-General Mahmoud Abbas was selected Chairman of the PLO and Foreign Minister Farouk Kaddoumi became head of Fatah. Ahmed Qurei remained as Prime Minister and took additional security responsibilities. Abbas won the January 2005 presidential election by a comfortable margin, solidifying himself as the successor to Arafat as leader of the Palestinians. Finally, in January 2006, Arafat's Fatah was largely replaced by Hamas, who won the legislative elections and Hamas members, Ismail Haniya took over the position of Prime Minister, while Mahmoud al-Zahar took over that of Foreign Minister. The immediate reaction of Israel and of the United States was to cut all transfer of tax receipts and funds to the Palestinians, due to the fact that Hamas refuses to accept the right of Israel to exist.

Personal life

In 1990 Arafat married Suha Tawil, a Palestinian Greek Orthodox Christian when Arafat was 61 and Suha, 27. Suha converted to Islam before marrying him. Before their marriage, Suha was working for the PLO in Tunis after meeting Arafat in France. They moved to Gaza City together after the Oslo agreements where they lived in separate quarters in their apartment building.^[84]^[6]
On July 24, 1995, Arafat's wife Suha gave birth to a daughter, who was named Zahwa after his deceased mother. Prior to the couple's marriage in 1991, Arafat adopted fifty Palestinian war orphans.^[86]
Ion Mihai Pacepa, a Romanian intelligence chief, recorded in his memoir "Red Horizons", that Arafat had homosexual tendencies. He alleged that intelligence on the "Tiger" (an English translation of Arafat's common Arabic nickname, ''Nimr'') gathered in the 1970s indicated Arafat had had frequent sexual trysts with his male bodyguards and protégés.^[87] In his autobiography, Terry McAuliffe, former US Democratic Party leader and close aide to President Bill Clinton writes that Arafat made a pass at him by rubbing his leg at a dinner.^[88]
The issue has been mostly addressed in the dubious context of Arafat's death. It has been alleged that the PLO's leader may have contracted HIV as the result of risky homosexual behavior in the years preceding the AIDS scare of the late 1980s. Arafat's sexual proclivities may have been largely ignored by Arab, and indeed other, state leaders.^[89]

Notes

1. Some sources use the term ''Chairman'' rather than ''President''; the Arabic word for both titles is the same. See President of the Palestinian Authority for further information.
2. 1994: Israelis and Arafat share peace prize
3. From Defender to Dictator, , Said K., Aburish, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998,
4. Palestinians mourn Yasser Arafat
5. Hatred and Hope in Israel Richard Miron
6. From Defender to Dictator, , Said K., Aburish, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998,
7. ''Yasser Arafat: Homeland a dream for Palestinian Authority Chief'' - CNN News
8. The Mystery of Arafat, , Dany, Rubenstein, Steerforth Press, 1995,
9. From Defender to Dictator, , Said K., Aburish, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998,
10. From Defender to Dictator, , Said K., Aburish, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998,
11. From Defender to Dictator, , Said K., Aburish, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998,
12. From Defender to Dictator, , Said K., Aburish, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998,
13. Arafat, , Alan, Hart, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1994,
14. From Defender to Dictator, , Said K., Aburish, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998,
15. Biography of Khalil al-Wazir (Abu Jihad) Phillip Mattar
16. From Defender to Dictator, , Said K., Aburish, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998,
17. Abu Iyad, Unknown Pages of his Life, , Hassan Khalil, Hussein, , ,
18. From Defender to Dictator, , Said K., Aburish, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998,
19. From Defender to Dictator, , Said K., Aburish, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998,
20. Green March, Black September, , John K., Cooley, Frank Crass & Co., 1973,
21. Tried by Fire, , Bassam, Abu Sharif, Time Warner Paperbacks, 1996,
22. From Defender to Dictator, , Said K., Aburish, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998,
23. Behind the Myth:Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Revolution, , Andrew, Gowers, Interlink Pub Group Inc, 1991,
24. From Defender to Dictator, , Said K., Aburish, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998,
25. Six Days of War, June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East, , Michael, Oren, The Random House Publishing Group, 2003,
26. From Defender to Dictator, , Said K., Aburish, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998,
27. From Defender to Dictator, , Said K., Aburish, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998,
28. Inside the PLO, , Neil, Livingstone, Reader's Digest Association, 1990,
29. From Defender to Dictator, , Said K., Aburish, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998,
30. The Guerrilla Threat In the Middle East
31. The Palestinian Liberation Organization, Power, People and Politics, , Helena, Cobban, Cambridge University Press, 1984,
32. From Defender to Dictator, , Said K., Aburish, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998,
33. From Defender to Dictator, , Said K., Aburish, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998,
34. This Is a Hijack
35. Black September in Jordan 1970-1971
36. Arafat, the Difficult Number, , Mahran, Rasheda, Dar al-Hayan, ,
37. Munich Massacre Remembered Robert Berger
38. Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001, , Benny, Morris, Vintage Books, 2001,
39. Political Program Adopted at the 12th Session of the Palestine National Council
40. Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) attacked Private Citizens & Property target
41. The Seizure of the Saudi Arabian
Embassy in Khartoum
42.
43. ''Siege of Beirut'' George W. Gawrych
44. The Battle of Tel al-Zaatar
45. 92 Press Conference Following Israel Air Force Attack on PLO base in Tunis
46. A Matter of Justice: Tax Resistance in Beit Sahour-Nonviolent Sanctions; Albert Einstein Institution, Spring/Summer 1992
47. Yasser Arafat, Speech at UN General Assembly Geneva, General Assembly 13 December 1988
48. Arafat Clarifies Statement to Satisfy U.S. Conditions for Dialogue
49. ''III. Background: Refugees and other Non-Nationals in Iraq'', Iraq/Jordan - Flight from Iraq: Attacks on Refugees and Other Foreigners and their Treatment in Jordan, Human Rights Watch Report, May 2003 Vol. 15, No. 4 (E), Human Rights Watch
50. Timeline: Yasser Arafat
51. Israel 1991 to Present: Oslo Accords, What were the details of the Oslo Accords
52. Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area
53. Israel-PLO Recognition: Exchange of Letters Between PM Rabin and Chairman Arafat
54. 1994: Israelis and Arafat share peace prize
55. From Defender to Dictator, , Said K., Aburish, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998,
56. 'Profile: Binyamin Netanyahu'-''Binyamin Netanyahu was one of the most right-wing and controversial leaders in Israel's history.''
57. ''Hardliners Gain Around Likud Vote''
58. The Wye River Memorandum
59. Palestine Peace Not Apartheid, , James, Carter, Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2006,
60. A Life in Retrospect: Yasser Arafat
61. From Defender to Dictator, , Said K., Aburish, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998,
62. Palestinian Authority funds go to militants Jeremy Bowen
63. Index of Documents Found by Israel Implying Direct Control of the PA over the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades
64. The Arab Peace Initiative
65. ''Bush dismisses Arafat as Partner, Pushes for New Leader'' G. Robert Hillman
66. MI chief: terror groups trying hard to pull off mega-attack Gideon Alon
67. IMF audit reveals Arafat diverted 0 million to account under his personal control Karim Nashashibi
68. ''Arafat's Billions'' Lesley Stahl
69. ''Arafat's Investments Included Dotcoms, New York Bowling Alley'' Vernon Silver
70. ''European Union's relationship with West Bank and Gaza''
71. ''"Arafat used aid to buy weapons"'' Yaakov Katz
72. ''Ending of Yasser's Life''
73. ''Code of Public Health''
74. Palestinians mourn Arafat but struggle for liberation will continue Rotem
75. Yasser Arafat a-t-il été assassiné? ("Was Arafat murdered?") Amnon Kapeliouk
76. ''Arafat's death remains a mystery despite disclosure of medical records''
77. ''Israel Plans for Arafat Burial in Gaza''
78. No way to die
79. Debate on the Death of Yasser Arafat
80. 'Arafat doctors found "no poison"':Tests on Yasser Arafat's body showed no traces of any known poisons, according to medical files released on Monday.
81. ''Israel protests Arafat's death certificate''
82. ''SWC to French Justice Minister: "To Discourage Speculation, Rectify Arafat Death Certificate False Details of Birthplace and add the Cause of Death"'' Simon Shmuel
83. French Civil Code, L99-101
84. 'Profile: Suha Arafat'-''Blonde, convent-educated and with a rumoured penchant for designer suits, Suha Arafat makes an unlikely wife for the leader of the Palestinian resistance.''
85. From Defender to Dictator, , Said K., Aburish, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998,
86. ''Milestones''
87. ''Red Horizons: Chronicles of a Communist Spy Chief'', , Ion Mihai, Pacepa, Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1987,
88. ''What a Party!: My Life Among Democrats: Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists, Alligators and Other Wild Animals'', , Terry, McAuliffe, Thomas Dunne Books, 2007,
89. ''Ex-aide: Israeli assassin poisoned Arafat in ear'' Aaron Klein

External links

Biographies and profiles

★ A Life in Retrospect: Yasser Arafat Time magazine retrospective

★ Biography of Yasser Arafat from the Nobel e-Museum

★ Life and times of Yassir Arafat, Profile: Yassir Arafat from Times Online, UK

Speeches

★ Yasser Arafat's November 13, 1974 UN General Assembly speech

★ Yasser Arafat's December 13, 1988 UN General Assembly speech

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