Yasir Arafat

President of the Palestinian Authority (1996-2004)

• Born: August 24, 1929
• Birthplace: Cairo, Egypt
• Died: November 11, 2004
• Place of death: Paris, France

Arafat was the founder of Fatah, a Palestinian revolutionary and sometimes terrorist organization that became the founding block of the Palestine Liberation Organization. A controversial figure who was a freedom fighter to his own people and a terrorist to Israelis and others, he moved the Palestinians from near obscurity in the 1960’s to the forefront of the world’s attention.

Early Life

Yasir Arafat (YA-sur A-rah-faht) was born Mohammed Abd al-Rauf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini in Cairo. His mother, Hamida, was a cousin of Hajj Amin al Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem and Palestinian leader during the British mandate over Palestine. Arafat was one of seven children from his father’s first marriage. His father, Abd al-Rauf Arafat al-Qudwa, was from the Qudwa family of Gaza and the Khan Yunis, and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Arafat’s family moved back to Gaza from Cairo in 1939, and he was reared by an uncle after the death of his parents.

After World War II, when Arafat was in his teens, he became active in Palestinian student causes. He belonged to the group Futuwah, a youth organization affiliated with the Husseini clan that feuded with the rival Nashashibis. In 1946 he was active in smuggling arms into Palestine from Egypt. He fought in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War in battles south of Jerusalem. From 1951 to 1956, Arafat attended Fu՚ād I University (now Cairo University) as a civil engineering student. He underwent commando training with a Gaza brigade in the Egyptian army in 1951 and later became involved in groups that staged hit-and-run operations against the British around the Suez Canal. In 1952, Arafat was elected president of the Union of Palestinian Students.

In August, 1956, Arafat attended the International Student Congress in Prague and then became chairman of the Union of Palestinian Graduates. This position allowed him to establish contacts with Palestinians in other countries. He began work as a construction engineer. In the October, 1956, Suez War, Arafat fought in the Egyptian army as a bomb disposal expert.

Life’s Work

In 1956, Arafat, along with Khalil al-Wazir (also known as Abu Jihad), formed Fatah (victory) and became its spokesperson. The principle of the new organization was that its members should not belong to any Arab political party or other movement. This, he believed, was a way to demonstrate that Palestinians did not want to interfere in Arab internal politics. During 1957, Arafat moved to Kuwait and worked for the Kuwaiti government’s department of watersupply as a civil engineer; he also established a construction company that hired Palestinians. Many important Fatah contacts were made in this period. He established the first of Fatah’s underground cells. In July, 1962, President Ahmed Ben Bella of Algeria became the first Arab head of state to recognize Fatah. Arafat met Ben Bella in December, 1962, and opened a Fatah office in Algiers under the name Bureau de la Palestine. Fatah subsequently developed along collective leadership lines. Arafat believed that Arab unity was key to liberating Palestine and that unity had to come from the people. His idea was to capture the imagination of the Palestinian people.

In 1964, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was formed by the Arab States in Cairo, led by Ahmed Shukairy but in essence controlled by Egypt. Arafat, trying to assert Palestinian independence, had many difficulties with Arab regimes that wanted to control Palestinian resistance. In May, 1966, Arafat, Abu Jihad, and twenty other Fatah members were arrested by the Syrian government on specious murder charges after a Syrian plot backfired, leading to the deaths of two Fatah members.

During the June, 1967, Six-Day War , Arafat and Abu Jihad fought on the Syrian front as irregulars. Arafat’s reaction to Arab defeat was despair but was also to begin a popular war of liberation. Arafat was in favor of immediate resumption of guerrilla warfare as a way to avert the psychological burden of Arab defeat. On June 23, 1967, the Fatah Central Committee confirmed the idea of returning to military confrontation, and Arafat was appointed military commander. Some small operations began in August, but Israeli security forces had uncovered most of the cells by the end of the year. Arafat believed that irregular fighting allowed the Palestinians to fix their identity. Arafat stayed in the West Bank until the end of the year and then escaped to Jordan. The years 1968 to 1970 saw Jordan used as a base for attacks against Israel.

On March 21, 1968, the Battle of Karameh occurred between Israelis and Palestinian-Jordanian forces, marking the first Palestinian military victory over Israel since 1948. Karameh was viewed as “resurrection of the Palestinian people.” Many volunteers came to PLO circles. In addition, a Palestinian bureaucracy was established and intellectuals became involved in the revival of Palestinian culture. The relationship between Arafat and President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt blossomed after Karameh, and Arafat became the chief spokesperson for the PLO. Arafat’s solution to the Palestine problem in 1968 was to espouse the idea of forming a Democratic State of Palestine. From Fatah’s perspective, this meant dismantling Israel by politics and nonviolence, but from Israel’s view, the dismantling appeared to be based on violence. The nonviolent solution was ultimately rejected by the PLO, which sought the extinction of Israel through violent means according to its 1964 covenant.

In early 1969, Arafat took over the PLO and made it into an umbrella organization, independent of the Arab regimes. Arafat himself became a symbol of resistance, more than a freedom fighter, to some. The PLO covenant bound all to “armed struggle.” Arafat was elected chairman of the PLO executive committee. On November 3, 1969, the Cairo Agreement, which allowed the PLO to base itself in Lebanon, bear arms, use Lebanese territory to attack Israel, and have direct rule over the Palestinian refugee camps, was concluded. Arafat became supreme commander of the Palestine Armed Struggle Command (PASC).

During September, 1970, however, Arafat lost control of the extremists, particularly the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Although the PFLP was suspended from the Central Committee of the Palestine Resistance, a civil war broke out in Jordan, and the PLO, including Arafat’s forces, was defeated by the Jordanian army. There is some opinion that the PLO disaster in Jordan could have been averted if Arafat had used force to control the radicals. Arafat, however, seemed unwilling to restrain the leftists out of respect for the principle of national unity. Arafat also believed that use of violence against the Left would have destroyed “democracy” within the PLO.

The result was the rise of terror as a tactic by Palestinian groups after 1970. Black September, led by the PFLP, was the most violent early group. It was responsible for the 1971 assassination of the Jordanian prime minister Wasfi Tal; the May, 1972, Lod Airport massacre; and the August, 1972, massacre of Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich. Arafat subsequently made a tactical alliance with the PLO Left and committed himself to armed struggle.

The first change toward moderation came in February, 1974, with a PLO working paper that indicated a willingness to accept a political settlement in exchange for a mini-state on the West Bank and in Gaza. Unofficial contacts were established with Israelis by the end of 1973, but it was not until 1977 that the Palestine National Council supported the idea of negotiations on the mini-state idea. At the Rabat Conference in 1974, the PLO was recognized as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

On November 13, 1974, Arafat was invited to address the United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly, and he called for establishment of national authority on any land in the West Bank and Gaza. Arafat was treated as head of state. He asserted that, “Today, I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom-fighter’s gun. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.” To critics, the gesture seemed hypocritical, while his appearance in traditional Arab dress appeared as an example of political transformation in a changing world: yesterday a terrorist, today a diplomat. U.N. General Assembly Resolution 3236 of November 14, 1974, recognized the PLO as a representative of the Palestinian people and the right of the Palestinians to self-determination, national independence, and sovereignty. The PLO achieved diplomatic recognition from more than eighty states by the 1980’s as well as observer status at the United Nations.

Arafat’s 1974 successes, however, were short-lived. In 1975, the PLO became involved in the Lebanon Civil War, bringing the PLO into conflict with Syria, which did not want an independent Palestinian movement. Arafat moved in and out of Lebanon during the late 1970’s, trying to position PLO forces and arrange cease-fires. The November, 1977, Sadat Peace Initiative with Israel and Anwar el-Sadat’s historic visit to Jerusalem soured the relationship between Arafat and Sadat, as the Egyptian president appeared to usurp a role specifically delegated to the PLO.

In January, 1978, the PLO appeared to splinter further over the issue of legitimate leadership and the issue of armed struggle. Abu Nidal established a faction (Black June) and insisted that he, not Arafat, was the real representative of Fatah. Several Palestinian supporters of Arafat were assassinated by Abu Nidal’s group, and he, in turn, was sentenced in absentia to death by Fatah leadership. In April, 1978, a mutiny within Fatah was led by Abu Daoud. Arafat tried to heal the rift by integrating all militias under Fatah. Arafat, in his attempt to maintain Palestinian unity, often gave contradictory statements about what exactly was the ultimate desire of the Palestinians. In 1978, for example, in a discussion with U.S. congressman Paul Findley, he indicated that he would accept a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza but “would reserve the right, of course, to use non-violent means to bring about the eventual unification of all of Palestine.”

In 1982, U.S. president Ronald Reagan proposed a peace plan that Arafat considered but that the Palestine National Council (PNC) ultimately rejected. This plan would have required Arafat to work jointly with King Hussein I of Jordan on Palestinian rights, which was something that President Hafez al-Assad of Syria did not want. Hussein desired a Palestinian state in confederation with Jordan, a situation that would narrow the independence of a PLO state. Arafat later accepted the idea of a joint Palestinian-Jordanian delegation, but Hussein insisted on including West Bank representatives in the delegation as well. Assad, in response, planned a Fatah rebellion. By 1985, Hussein indicated that the PLO would have to accept U.N. Resolution 242 of 1967, and an agreement was made between Arafat and Hussein accepting the land-for-peace principle. Yet PLO terrorist actions continued, undercutting Arafat’s desire for moderation.

PLO leadership was caught short by the Intifada, the Palestinian uprising on the West Bank and Gaza that began on December 8, 1987. That uprising was begun largely because Arab states had become more interested in the Iraq-Iran War that was drawing to a close than the Palestine question. While the Intifada was spontaneous in its origins, PLO leadership moved in to control much of the activity and strikes and to provide financial support for those under Israeli occupation.

On November 15, 1988, the PNC declared an independent Palestinian state without specific borders and conditionally accepted U.N. Resolutions 242 and 338 and the 1947 Partition Plan. There was no straight answer from Arafat as to whether this meant recognition of Israel. During December, 1988, there were many clarifications, which finally led to American recognition of the PLO. In early December in Stockholm, Arafat indicated that he had accepted the existence of Israel. On December 13, he addressed a special session of the U.N. General Assembly in Geneva after having been refused a visa by the U.S. Department of State. In his address he fell short of a full renunciation of terrorism but called for peace talks. A day later, on December 14, another statement by Arafat provided another clarification on “the right of all parties concerned in the Middle East conflict to exist in peace and security . . . including the state of Palestine, Israel, and other neighbors.” He also renounced all forms of terrorism. These statements satisfied the United States government and ended the diplomatic isolation of the PLO from Washington, D.C. At the same time, Arafat was critical of what appeared to be unconditional support of Israel by the United States because it encouraged hard-line positions within Israel.

Despite the recognition of Israel and renunciation of terrorism, questions still existed regarding Arafat’s attitudes toward Palestinian moderates and the wishes of Palestinians under occupation. During January, 1989, moderates who suggested ending the Intifada made threats against Arafat. Arafat’s general position by the end of the 1980’s was to support the creation of a Palestinian state on the West Bank, in Gaza, and in East Jerusalem, with support from an international conference involving all parties of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

By 1993 a significant shift had taken place in Palestinian-Israeli relations. After intensive negotiations and under pressure from the United States to come to an agreement, Arafat and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin signed the Oslo Peace Accords, in which Israel agreed to give up some of the occupied territories to autonomous Palestinian control. Rabin, however, was soon assassinated by a zealot opposed to the peace process. The promise of these accords and Arafat’s role in negotiating them led the Nobel Institute to award its 1994 Peace Prize to Arafat, Rabin, and Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres. On January 20, 1996, Arafat was elected president (or “head,” ra’is in Arabic) of the newly established Palestinian Authority, an interim governing organization established during the negotiations in Oslo. However, because Hamas (an Arabic acronym for “Islamic resistance movement”) and other hard-line anti-Israeli organizations boycotted the elections, Arafat’s victory was problematic. Moreover, his relations with the new conservative prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu , were difficult. Again under international pressure, the two leaders signed the Wye River Agreement in 1998. Netanyahu’s pledged concession of West Bank land cost him the support of his party. Arafat in turn struggled to maintain the support of the more militant Palestinian factions, while pledging to suppress terrorism against Israeli targets. As a condition of the peace process, the Palestinian Authority expunged from its constitution its commitment to destroy Israel, but Arafat sought to appease his political opponents by declaring his intention to form the long-awaited Palestinian state.

At the U.S.-sponsored 2000 Camp David summit to negotiate a final settlement to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Netanyahu’s successor, leftist Ehud Barak , offered Arafat what looked to be the long-sought deal: a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza strip, the dismantling of some Israeli settlements, and a capital in a Jerusalem suburb. However, Arafat rejected the offer and refused to make a counteroffer, to the fury of President Bill Clinton, who was pressuring both sides to come to an agreement. Although negotiations continued, Prime Minister Barak withdrew from them. Two months later, the Second Intifada began and grew steadily in intensity. Israel elected conservative Ariel Sharon to deal with it. Meanwhile, George W. Bush was elected president of the United States. Both proclaimed Arafat to be an obstacle to peace and sought to isolate him. As Hamas and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade launched suicide attacks on Israel, Arafat appeared either to tacitly approve of or to be unable to stop the violence. Additionally, these groups sometimes fought with Arafat’s Fatah organization.

In 2002, shortly after a suicide bomb killed 135 Israelis, Sharon lost all patience with Arafat. Israeli forces invaded the West Bank and trapped Arafat in his command. He was allowed to leave only after extensive negotiations, whereupon the command post was destroyed, greatly reducing Arafat’s active control of events in the West Bank. At the same time there were increasing complaints within the Palestinian population over corruption in the PLO and about Arafat’s style of rule, which was autocratic and often severe. Arafat, his wife, Suha, and their daughter lived modestly, but when Forbes magazine reported that Arafat had some $300 million in personal wealth, the revelation fueled the corruption controversy. Arafat was widely thought to use the money to maintain a network of supporters, while winking at corruption among his lieutenants to keep them loyal. At the same time social work performed by Hamas, as well as its military ventures, won supporters away from the PLO.

Arafat’s physical isolation prevented him from receiving proper medical care for his deteriorating health. His condition rapidly worsened in 2004. On October 29, he flew to France for treatment at a military hospital near Paris. The origin and nature of his illness were mysterious, although one doctor diagnosed idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, a sustained low platelet count in the blood from an unknown cause and typically manifesting in bruising and bleeding from soft tissues, such as the gums. On November 3, he fell into a coma, which steadily deepened. He died eight days later. Controversy immediately erupted. That cirrhosis of the liver was a prime factor in his death led to several rumors, most prominently that he had been poisoned. An autopsy might have settled the matter, but Arafat’s wife forbade it. He was buried in Ramallah in the West Bank on November 12 after Israel, because of security concerns, refused to honor his wish to be laid to rest in East Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Significance

Although Arafat did not succeed in creating a fully independent Palestinian state, he was ultimately the symbol of the Palestinian revolution. As a world traveler and charismatic leader, he appeared to be wedded to the Palestinian revolution and was able to be all things to all people. Part of his leadership success was his ability to keep the PLO’s ideology simple, especially in rejecting extraneous issues and refusing to make his organization a tool of any specific Arab regime. Ideologically, Arafat’s bottom line was that Palestine was Arab land and hence Israel would never be formally recognized. Arafat was also able to obtain large financial subsidies for the Palestinian cause from oil-producing Arab regimes, which in turn increased the financial power of the PLO in Lebanon through the summer of 1982.

Arafat, however, was often said to equivocate. Indeed, Time magazine began his obituary, “Arafat was a grand obfuscator.” His obscure statements about renunciation of terrorism and recognition of Israel did not allow him to win full support of the United States or Western European powers for the Palestinian cause. During his tenure as PLO leader, Arafat was also criticized for his individualism his insistence that he be free to take personal initiatives, which often led to broad promises without the support of all PLO groups. He was also criticized by other Palestinian groups for enriching himself and the leadership at the expense of those in the camps. The strategy of delaying peace until the Arabs were strong enough to dictate terms was criticized by peace advocates outside the Middle East. It also backfired: Although Mahmoud Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen) won the January, 2005, election to succeed Arafat, the PLO lost control of the Palestinian Authority to Hamas in January, 2006, elections. As a result, the European Union and United States withdrew financial support, and the Palestinians had to deal with greater poverty and renewed cycles of fighting and uneasy truces, not only with Israel but also among Palestinian parties. Arafat’s life is a testimony to the complexity of the Palestinian question and the fact that it is interwoven into Arab politics.

Bibliography

Becker, Jillian. The PLO. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1984. A history of the PLO that defines the organization as a terrorist group and takes a negative view toward Arafat as a leader.

Friedman, Thomas. From Beirut to Jerusalem. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1989. This is an exceptionally interesting examination of Israeli, Palestinian, and Lebanese politics by a Pulitzer Prize-winning bureau chief of The New York Times in Beirut and Jerusalem.

Karsh, Efraim. Arafat’s War: The Man and His Struggle for Israeli Conquest. New York: Grove Press, 2003. Karsh argues that the collapse of the peace process, begun after the Oslo Accords, came about because Arafat was more interested in destroying Israel than in establishing a Palestinian state.

Mishal, Shaul. The PLO Under Arafat: Between Gun and Olive Branch. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1986. A structural examination of the PLO that in a scholarly way distinguishes Arafat from other Palestinian leaders and examines the mechanics of the PLO.

Rubenstein, Richard. Alchemists of Revolution. New York: Basic Books, 1987. A critical examination of the structure of terrorism as it developed during the 1970’s and 1980’s. Special attention is paid to Arafat as representative of a figure who is a freedom fighter to his own people and a terrorist to outsiders.

Rubin, Barry, and Judith Colp Rubin. Yasir Arafat: A Political Biography. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. The authors document Arafat’s career, from his days as a student to his eventual leadership of the Palestinian people, pointing out his errors of judgment and history of duplicity. Includes a useful chronology and glossary of names and political movements.

Samuels, David. “In a Ruined Country.” The Atlantic, September, 2005. A brief biography of Arafat, analyzing how his failure to achieve a lasting peace with Israel led to the destruction of Palestine.

Walker, Tony, and Andrew Gowers. Arafat: The Biography. Rev. ed. London: Virgin, 2003. The authors interviewed Arafat himself and hundreds of senior Palestinian and Israeli officials to provide this account of Arafat’s transition from terrorist to statesman to failed Palestinian leader.