Arafat, Yasir (1929–2004)

During his lengthy tenure as a Palestinian leader, Yasir Arafat (aka Abu Ammar) played many roles, from terrorist to recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. While serving a chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and leader of the Palestinian Authority, Arafat remained an iconic figure, as famous for his fiery speeches as for sporting an unshaven chin and a checkered kaffiyeh, always shaped into a point to symbolize the map of Palestine.

Although Arafat, whose nom de guerre is Abu Ammar, cooperated with many biographers and gave countless interviews, many details of his life are uncertain. No consensus exists on his date or place of birth, for instance. His birth certificate shows he was born Mohammed Abder Rauf Arafat al Kudwa al Husseini in Cairo on August 24, 1929; [Page 58]Arafat maintained that he was born in Jerusalem on August 4, 1929, however. The sixth of seven children, he spent his early years in Cairo. His mother died when he was four, and Arafat and his younger brother were sent to live with an uncle in Jerusalem. He later returned to Cairo when his father, a Palestinian wholesale trader, remarried.

Arafat was active in politics from an early age, working as an aide for a relative in the Palestinian national movement. Before he entered his twenties, he was involved in smuggling guns from Egypt to Palestine. During his first years as an engineering student at Cairo University, he worked to organize fellow Palestinian students. In 1948 he left school to fight for Palestine as a volunteer in the first Arab-Israeli war.

After the Arab defeat, Arafat returned to Cairo. He later told biographers that he was so devastated that he considered abandoning the cause. He toyed with the idea of traveling to the United States to finish his studies, and even applied for a visa. Instead, he returned to the university in Cairo and decided to stay in Egypt. He continued to organize, and in 1952 he was elected president of the Union of Palestinian Students, and he created a student magazine called The Voice of Palestine.

Arafat later left Egypt for Kuwait, where he worked as a construction and contacting engineer. In 1957 he and his closest colleagues formed an underground movement, which became the first cell of his al Fatah group, which advocated an armed struggle for Palestine carried out by Palestinians themselves, not by other Arab countries and their armies. The group published a magazine, Our Palestine: The Call to Life, that called for the eradication of Israel. The publication helped al Fatah draw in new members, and Arafat gained the support of the Syrian government. With this backing, Fatah mounted its first raid into Israel in 1965. The group continued to infiltrate and attack Israel, crossing from Lebanon and Jordan. Arafat is said to have used multiple disguises when traveling, including that of an Egyptian tourist, a Pakistani businessman, and a shepherd.

In June 1967, Israel defeated Egypt, Syria, and Jordan in what has become known as the Six-Day War. Israel then occupied the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank, forcing many Palestinians to become refugees. Arafat and other top Fatah leaders worked quickly to recruit displaced Palestinians. Fatah increased the number of its raids, attacking Israel from Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. Arafat and about 300 fighters set up a base in the town of Karameh, on the road between the West Bank and Jordan.

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