Yasser arafat short biography

Yasser Arafat

Yasser Arafat[note 1] (24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004) Is well known as the first leader of the Palestinian people. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1969 to 2004. In 1993, he also became president of the Palestinian National Authority (PA).

Arafat was born in Jerusalem, Gaza or Cairo.[1] He studied civil engineering at Cairo University. He worked as an engineer in Kuwait.

In 1994, Yasser Arafat won the Nobel Peace Prize along with two others.[note 2] They got the prize for their peace efforts in the Middle East when Palestinian National Authority was formed.[2]

The views of him are somewhat divided. Some people see him as a hero, who fought for the cause of the Palestinian people. Others see him as a terrorist, who promoted the use of violence to reach his goals. Still others think he was a charismatic leader, but he made too many concessions to the Israeli government.

Yasser died in Paris from a cerebral hemorrhage. The next day he was buried at his compound, with a hasty funeral in Ramallah on November 12. He was reburied on November 13, about 3:30 am. He was buried in a special casket, with the hope of being reburied in Jerusalem one day when an independent State of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital would be established.

Related pages

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Notes

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  1. ↑Also spelled Yassir Arafat (Arabic: ياسر عرفات). He was born Mohammed Abdel-Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini (محمد عبد الرؤوف القدوة الحسيني). He is also known by the kunyaAbu `Ammar (أبو عمّار).
  2. ↑The others were Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres.

References

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  1. ↑Most sources indicate Cairo as Arafat's place of birth, but others list his birthplace as Jerusalem or Gaza. See here and here for more information.
  2. ↑NobelPrize.org, "Yasser Arafat"; retrieved 2012-9-19.

Other websites

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Media related to Yasser Arafat at Wikimedia Commons