Yasser Arafat (rear RTL ياسرعرفات), born the August 24th 1929 with the Cairo and deceased on November 11th, 2004 with Clamart in France, of its true name Mohamed Abdel Raouf Arafat Al-Qudwa Al-Husseini (rear RTL محمدعبدالرؤوفالقدوةالحسيني) and known also under its kounya Bitter Abou (rear RTL ابوعمّار), was a activist then Palestinian politician . He receives the Nobel Prize of Peace 1994 in company of Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin.

Directing Fatah then also of the Liberation organization of Palestine, regarded a long time as a terrorist in particular by Israel because of her implication in many operations which cost the life civilians and Israeli soldiers, Yasser Arafat remained during several decades a figure discussed of the expression by the violence of the national aspirations Palestinian before appearing for Israel as a partner of discussions within the framework of the israélo-Palestinian Peace process in the years 1990.

Yasser Arafat represents the Palestinian people then in the various peace negotiations and sign the agreements of Oslo in 1993. It becomes the first president news Palestinian Autorité.

Starting from 2001, after the failure of the Summit of Taba and the release of the the Second Intifada, it gradually loses its credit near part of its people which reproach him the corruption of his authority. It is found insulated on the international scene while the Israelis elect Ariel Sharon at the post of Prime Minister for the State of Israel, leading a hardening of the Israeli position with respect to the constrained Palestinian leader not to leave Ramallah more. This insulation is broken only the day before its death, when it is taken along urgently to Paris where it dies in 2004.

Biography

From 1929 to 1959, first years

Birth

Its official name is Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat Al-Qudua Al-Husseini . Its Palestinian biographer, Saïd K. Aburish, specifies that “Mohammed Abdel Rahman was her first name; Abdel Raouf, the name of his/her father; Arafat, her grandfather; Al-Qudua is the name of its family and Al-Husseini is the name of the clan to which belongbelong Al-Qudua”.

Arafat asserted himself like the nephew of famous the large mufti of Jerusalem Hadj Amin Al-Husseini.

Yasser Arafat was born with the Cairo in Egypt, the August 24th 1929. A biographer of Yasser Arafat, Alan Binder, reports that documents discovered at the university of Cairo made it possible to conclude that it had been born well in the Egyptian capital. Sixth of a family of seven children, his father is commercial originating in Gaza and his/her mother is originating in Jerusalem.

However, itself declared being born with Jerusalem the August 4th 1929. His/her mother would have thus left Cairo during her pregnancy following an argument with her husband, to go in her parents in the Holy City where it would have given rise to Yasser. Arafat would have insisted on the fact that it had been born with Jerusalem to preserve its existence mythical and thus to increase its credibility as a Palestinian leader.

Recorded by his father like born in Cairo , so that “it profits from' free teaching, it passes there most of its childhood and of its adolescence with his six brothers and sisters. After the death of his mother, whereas it is five years old, it passes with her brother, Fathi Arafat - which becomes later the president of the Palestinian Red Crescent -, four years with Jerusalem at one of his maternal uncles, Salim Abou Saoud, makes it return to the Cairo where his/her older sister deals with him.

A committed youth

In Cairo, Arafat attends the Stiffs, of the Jewish sporting clubs for to study their mentality . It also starts to reading the texts of thinkers Zionists like Theodor Herzl and Vladimir Jabotinsky. It is necessary that I include/understand my enemy , he declares.

Arafat is secretly involved with other young people with the operations of commando by a German officer. He also denounces with the Egyptian police force the members of certain movements Zionists which operated in Cairo like, for example, a group of Jewish young girls of his vicinity, members of Youth Zionist, who carried out radio transmissions to encourage the Egyptian Jews to join the movement Zionist in Palestine.

His/her sister also tells that Arafat took part in all the demonstrations. I often had to run behind him and to bring back it to the house . His/her sister removes her pocket money to him to force it to obey to him but that does not prevent Arafat from continuing her activities.

In 17 years, it takes part in transport towards Palestine of weapons having to be employed against the British and the Jews. At the time of the defeat, it feels betrayed because the Arab armies disarm the Palestinian students come to fight. Yasser, who takes refuge in Gaza, understands that the Palestinians can count on nobody and that they must be independent of the Arab governments.

It plans to leave to settle in the United States to follow a training in engineering of oil to the Université of Texas, but the visa is refused to him. It enters then in 1949 to the school of engineers of the Université King Fouad I {{er}} of Cairo, where it obtains a diploma for the occupation of civil engineer.

Political struggle in Egypt

During its academic works, it becomes acquainted with Khaled Moheidine, professor of art of warfare in charge of the training of the reserve officers. It is reported that Yasser does not miss her course only once and thus obtains the certificate of reserve officer. This formation allows him to côtoyer civils servant of the Egyptian government, but time that it devotes to it makes that it only obtains its diploma for the occupation of engineer a little late compared to his comrades.

It approaches, without however in becoming member: the severity of this last with his/her repeated children, its marriages and its expulsion in Gaza indeed contributed to move away it from his/her son.

Arafat, who considers that Egyptian monarchy is corrupted.

During the Crisis of Suez Canal, it is used in the Egyptian army with the rank as second lieutenant.

With the Cairo, it also meets those which will found the Fatah with him, and will become its assistants of the direction of PLO.

Arafat works as engineer at the department of public works then to the municipality of Kuwait City, before developing her own business. The incomes generated by this activity enable him in 1958 to finance the creation of the Fatah, its political party.

Yasser Arafat is among the founders of the movement not to only have children, and contrary to the other founders, it does not take the name of the elder child. It adopts the name of war of Abou Ammar , in homage to Ammar Ben Yasser, a companion of the prophet Mahomet and first martyr of the Islam. Abou means father of Arabic .

He creates the Liberation movement of Palestine ( Harakat Tahrir Filastin rear RTL حركةتحريرفلسطين) with Salah Khalaf, Khalil Al-Wazir and Farouk Kaddoumi, quickly renamed Fatah (the conquest). This new organization has as a first drank the establishment of a Palestinian State of the the Mediterranean to the the Jordan, recovering in particular the territories of Israel. It proposes the idea that the release of Palestine is before all the business of the Palestinians, and could not be entrusted to the modes Arab or paid to problems of Arab unit. These doctrines are, at the time of Nasser and of the triumphing Panarabisme, almost heretic.

Creation of the PLO

See also: Liberation organization of Palestine

In April 1964, with Jerusalem-Is then under Jordanian control, the Palestinian National council meets in the Intercontinental hotel, located in top of the Mount of Olives and adopts the Charte of the PLO which defines the Palestinian nationalist objectives. One month later, the Arab Ligue meets in the instigation of Nasser to create the Liberation organization of Palestine. The purpose of this one is to fight the Israeli State. Its political branches are Fatah. As for its military arm, the Army of release of Palestine, it is placed under the command of the various Arab armies. However, this attack is a failure and Fatah is condemned by the near total of the Arab governments. Fatah continues however its operations against civil targets with in particular the attacks with the explosive of July 1965 against Beit Guvrin, and a railway close to Kfar Battir.

Until the War the Six Day old, the armed wing of Fatah carries out a " hundred raids". " The beginning of armed struggle is worth and more particularly with Arafat, the support growing of the Palestinian diaspora, enabling him to take (…) reindeers of OLP" .

Emancipation and beginning of activism

See also: Battle of Karameh

The Guerre the Six Day old changes gives it geopolitical to the the Middle East and constitutes the true starting point of the career of Yasser Arafat.

Egypt, Syria and the Jordan are defeats by Israel which conquers Jerusalem-Is and the the West Bank (which had passed since the British mandate under the authority of the Transjordanie since 1948), as well as the band of Gaza and the the Sinai then Egyptian and the Syrian Golan.

The Palestinian organizations reorganize. Two days after the end of the engagements, a congress of Fatah held with Damas decides, under the impulse of Yasser Arafat, to accentuate the armed struggle. The attention of Israel is diverted governments then Arab S to concentrate on the various Palestinian organizations, of which Fatah. Israeli repression is " implacable" and makes more than 200 killed among the Palestinians. In front of the failure, Arafat and Fatah then decide to change tactic. They establish their general headquarter with Karameh and launch, from Jordan, of the operations for which they obtain the support of the Arab Legion. In answer, Israel establishes reinforced monitoring systems and carries out raids beyond the Jordan.

In March 1968, in reprisals with the explosion of a bus of school bus service on a mine deposited by the Fedayin S, the Israeli army launches an operation of scale aiming at destroying the Palestinian camp of Karameh. 300 Palestinians, to which Yasser Arafat ordered “to hold head with the enemy” and supported by a hundred the Jordanian ones, face during several hours with an incursion of scale carried out by nearly 6500 men supported by aviation, the armoured tanks and artillery. The camp is finally shaved and the Israelis withdraw themselves. 128 Jordanian soldiers, 97 Palestinian combatants and 29 Israeli soldiers are killed. In spite of the high number on dead Arab side and the destruction of the camp, the battle is regarded as a victory by Fatah because the Israelis finally withdrew themselves after ten hours of combat. Arafat announces the victory with the radio and organizes with Amman official funeral for the fedayins which were killed.

This new situation allows completely the Fatah of émanciper of the supervision of Moukhabarat, and to take the same year the control of the PLO, Liberation organization of Palestine, representative organization created at the time of the top of the Arab Ligue four years before. Nasser recognizes Fatah and its chief, whom he had sought to thwart by all the means.

July 17th, 1968, the charter of the PLO is modified with the addition of 7 new articles following the war of 1967 and becomes the Palestinian national Charte, adopted in Cairo which declares the territory of the Palestine indivisible agent like and like the fatherland of the Palestinian Arab people . This charter is regarded by the Israelis as a true declaration of war, because it defines the goal of the organization in the destruction of the State of Israel by the armed struggle by denying any legitimacy of existence to him.

Presidency of the PLO

Thanks to the various distinctions given by Nasser to Arafat, this last is promoted with the head of Fatah. Even its detractors within the organization follow it, which enables him to have a strong foundation. Arafat also takes importance on the international scene: at the time of the battle of Karameh, the cover of Time offers the first public images of this man who is introduced like the Chef of the Palestinian Guérilla. A delegation of Fatah is accepted in France, which becomes thus the first nonArab country to accept a permanent representation of the movement.

The direction of the PLO is more than ever with its range. February 4th, 1969, during the Palestinian National congress, it is named by it president of the executive committee, to replace Yahya Hammouda.

Yasser Arafat, while making assemble the PLO in first line, brings the nature of the combat of the Palestinians on a more political ground. It then modifies the course of the PLO, a movement panarabe, to make of it a movement which devotes to the Palestinian national cause . The armed struggle against Israel was accepted by the Accords of Cairo in 1969. At the dawn of the years 1970, the PLO which it chairs resorts to violence in its fight against Israel. Its militants do not hesitate to hijack planes, to take hostages, to make armed actions against with the civilians, operations that Arafat directs and plans.

Black September in Jordan

See also: black September

Following the war the six day old, thousands of new refugees and fedayins Palestinian settled in Jordan. After Karameh, the PLO moves its general headquarter from Damas to Amman. Following the prestige growing of the PLO, the Palestinian combatants start to traverse out of weapon the streets of the Jordanian cities what causes clashes with the Jordanian forces. Gradually, the country becomes the base of the Palestinian armed struggle, the bases and the Palestinian camps become a " State in État" .

Following the diversion of three planes by four Palestinians of PFLP and of their destruction on the Jordanian ground with Zarqa, as well as attempted murder missed in his opposition, king Hussein orders, on September 17th, 1970, the massacre of tens of thousands of Palestinians, who they are Fedayin S or civilians. The Syria sends two hundred tanks on the Jordanian ground to help the armed forces of the PLO. This dramatic episode is known under the name of black September . Driven out country, Arafat and Fatah settle in Lebanon. Arafat becomes commander-in-chief it of the Palestinian revolutionary forces two years later, then, in 1973, the leader of the political department of the PLO.

The new charter defined in Beirut envisages “to attack everywhere the interests Zionists in the world” and “to raise the Lebanese base at the sides of the Palestinians”.

The Lebanese army tries in 1969 to take again the control of the camps, but it is too weak. A compromise is found with the signature with the Cairo under the aegis of Nasser, in 1969, of an agreement between Yasser Arafat - ordering PLO - and the commander-in-chief of the army recognizing the Extraterritorialité camps of the Fedayin S.

Olympic Games of Munich

See also: Taken hostages of the Olympic Games of Munich

In September 1972, eight Palestinians of the group black September penetrate in the Olympic village, kill two members of the Israeli team and kidnap nine Israeli athletes during the Olympic Games of Munich. The Palestinian commando claims the release of 200 their compatriots imprisoned in Israel. At the time of an attempt at release of the hostages by the German police force, a shooting bursts, and all the athletes are killed, the majority by the takers of hostage, sometimes with the grenade, but some also by the marksmen of the police force.

According to Benny Morris, the Fatah had made the decision to create the group black September at the time of a congress of the Fatah which had been held from August in September 1971 with Damas.

The international judgment of the attacks as well as other operations of the group black September has as a consequence the distance of the Fatah of with the organization. Arafat orders even the assassination of two of her members who refused to stop their activities. Mohammed Daoud Odeh, leader of the commando who carried out the operation, indicates in a book that it published in 1999 that Arafat had been informed of the plans of the operation but adds that the intention had never been to kill the Israeli athletes. According to Said Aburich, one does not have any proof that Arafat was personally implied in the actions of black the September group but it would have had the means of making them cease and did not do it.

A “progressive step” with respect to Israel

The Arab top organized in Algiers in November 1973 implicitly admits the idea of a progressive step with respect to Israel , by evoking the priority release of the occupied territories in 1967. The PLO is indicated by the same top like only representing Palestinians with an aim of making adhere Arafat to this idea, which it accepts.

Arafat joins together the twelfth conference of the Palestinian National council with an aim of making accept with the Palestinians this step by stage that some fear to see becoming a recognition of Israel. To face the internal oppositions to the PLO, he adds to the executive committee four novel members of the the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The inhabitants of the occupied territories, and in particular the Cisjordanians, are indeed favorable to a political payment of the conflict.

In same time, Arafat tries to contact the United States to incite Israel to recognize the PLO. He thus proposes protection by the PLO of the nationals and interests American in his areas of influence. Anxious of these developments, Israel then contacts Jordan which she wishes to see representing the Palestinians instead of the PLO.

The new orientation of Arafat divides the PLO. PFLP freezes its adhesion, followed by FPLP-CG, the Arab Front of release. Certain Palestinian groups, like the General union of the Palestinian students and other opponents of Arafat, resort to violence to weaken its attempt at bringing together with the United States. In 1974, the FPLP-CG carries out several raids on the cities of the north of Israel: the April 11th, 18 people (of which 9 children) are killed in an apartment of Kiryat Shmona and the May 15th, 21 children are killed at the time a catch of hostages in an elementary school with Ma' alot. March 5th, 1975, a commando of the PLO arriving at Tel Aviv by the sea is introduced into the Savoy hotel and take hostages. Eights of these hostages are killed and 11 wounded by the Palestinians who end up exploding themselves in their retirement at the time of the Israeli rescue operation which makes 3 dead among the soldiers. Following these attacks, the government of Israel reinforces its refusal of all discussions with the PLO, in spite of the denials of Arafat who in vain tries to make admit that neither him, nor the PLO, are responsible for these attacks.

The diplomatic battle

The year 1974 constitutes, for Yasser Arafat, one year important of advanced in favor of a political payment.

On the international plan

The May 14th, UNO recognizes the PLO by 105 votes against 4 like representative of the Palestinian people.

The October 21st in Beirut, it meets Jean Sauvagnargues, French Minister for the Foreign affairs, which becomes thus the first chief of the Western diplomacy to receive Arafat.

The November 13rd 1974, Yasser Arafat makes a speech before the General meeting of the United Nations. It defines in it the Sionisme like a racist ideology , imperialist and colonialist , it justifies the Palestinian cause there by comparing it with the nationalist fights other people of the world, and it defends the idea of a democratic single State there where would live Christian, Jewish and Moslem.

The November 22nd 1974, the Organization is allowed as observant member with UNO but does not repeal the part of the charter of the PLO aiming at the end of the official Zionism.

October 26th, 1976, at the time of the 8th Arab top with Reduction, the Heads of Arab States admit the PLO like full member of the Arab Ligue. This resolution also implies “the obligation of all the Arab countries to preserve the Palestinian unit and to abstain from any interference in the Palestinian businesses. ”.

Palestinian activism and Israeli intervention in Lebanon

In 1976, the Massacre of Damour, made mainly by the Palestinian militia, marks the release of the Lebanese civil war.

The Lebanese president and the chief of the PLO are convened in Riyadh and are invited by the Saudi Arabia and the Egypt to recognize the legitimacy of the presence of the Syrian troops in Lebanon, and officialize it by the installation of the Arab Force of dissuasion (FAD).

See also: Operation Peace as a Galileo

In addition, of the Palestinian attacks against the Israeli territory are organized from Lebanon. March 11th, 1978, a Palestinian commando started from Damour unloads in the south of Haïfa and takes the passengers of a bus as an hostage. The commando grapeshot all that the bus meets. The bus is finally stopped by an Israeli military unit in the north of Tel Aviv and the members of the Palestinian commando are killed. The heavy assessment on the whole of 35 died and 74 seriously injureds of which many civilians.

Israel waits of Lebanon until it ensures its safety by controlling the activity of the Palestinians on his territory, but Lebanon is too weak to solve the problem. Menahem Begin launches the Opération Litani in 1978, at the end which the Israeli armed and the armed with the South Lebanon (of the Christians Lebanese combined to the Israelis) take the control of a narrow strip of land, said the security zone , which will be evacuated in 1985.

In 1982, an attack is made in London by Abou Nidal (which had also tried before to assassinate Arafat), against an Israeli diplomat, Shlomo Argov, and leaves this paralyzed last. Israel shows the PLO, which sends uninterrupted since 1981 of the rockets of Lebanon on its territory but which denies any implication in the business, and the second military operation, known as Paix operation as a Galileo, sees to clash: 15000 Palestinians directed by Arafat and: 85000 Israeli soldiers. The structure of command which he had imagined on the ground breaks down, the officers on whom he counted escape. Said Aburich describes this situation as follows: The legendary tendency of Arafat to surround itself by incompetents flatterers and his lack of organization were expensive to the Palestinians .

Arafat launches calls in the media to ask of the assistance the Arab countries which do not move. The Arab League does not even judge useful to meet. Even Syria with which Arafat put an emergency plan in the event of Israeli invasion signs an unilateral truce with Israel which occupies the Southern Lebanon at the end of the operation.

It is during this second operation, at the time of the head office of Beirut by the Israeli army, that Palestinian civilians (between 800 and 3500 according to the sources) are massacred in the refugee camps of Sabra and Chatila by the Christian militia. The supposed implication of Ariel Sharon, then Minister for the Defense of Israel, in this operation will have later an negative impact on the peace talks when it reaches the functions of Prime Minister, on February 17th, 2001.

For the Lebanese period, the Palestinian camps become increasingly independent. Of its base of Beirut, the PLO deals with the social services with the Palestinian refugees. But in same time, it arms and organizes the groups of Fedayin S which launch attacks against Israel and its interests.

From 1982 to 1994, establishment in Tunis

See also: Yasser Arafat Years in Tunisia

Withdrawal of Lebanon

In 1982, in full war of Lebanon, Arafat dead by leaving accuracy a building reduced to ground by an Israeli bomb escapes.

One year afterwards, Arafat returns to Tripoli to Lebanon. As of September, the partisans of Arafat are pushed back by dissidents of the PLO directed by Abou Moussa supported by Syrian troops towards the refugee camps of Tripoli. Yasser Arafat is constrained with the exile. Farouk Kaddoumi request with the the USSR to protect the ships leaving the port from the city to ensure the departure of Arafat but the Soviets refuses. Farouk Kaddoumi then requires the assistance of the French who accept. The USSR justifies its refusal by the will to avoid any conflict with the United States.

Arafat and 4000 of its partisans leave Tripoli on Greek buildings protected by the French navy. It installs its general headquarter in the town of Borj Cédria very close to Tunis where it lives constantly on its guards. It does not have a fixed residence and never sleeps more than one night at the same place. This operation intervenes in answer to the assassination of three Israelis in Cyprus. The October 5th, an Italian cruising ship, the Achilles Lauro , is diverted by 4 members of the PLO. December 28th, 1985, other Palestinian commandos attack the air counters of El Al in the airports of Rome and Vienna, making 15 dead civilians.

In spite of the renouncement of the terrorism of the PLO in November 1985 in Cairo, the organization is implied in more than 100 acts at the time of the two following years.

The first Intifada and declaration of Algiers

See also: the First Intifada

In 1988, the the First Intifada, or “revolts stones”, bursts in the West Bank and on the tape of Gaza. Although the PLO was largely implied in this revolt, this one was mainly carried out by the Commandement unified of Intifada, and not by the Tunisian faction of Arafat. It would have specified the following day at the time of a press conference which the PLO recognized resolution 242, the right to the existence of Israel and to give up terrorism

The US president Ronald Reagan puts an end to the 13 years of prohibition to discuss with the PLO by officializing the opening the dialog with the organization, at the time of a press conference the December 14th.

Arafat meets the pope Jean-Paul II with the the Vatican, on December 23rd, 1988.

December 22nd, 1989, more than 60 American senators send a letter to the Secretary of State James Baker, to be opposed to the visa of entry of Arafat in visit to the head office of UNO in the United States.

Alliance with Saddam Hussein

See also: War of the Gulf (1990-1991)

In 1989, the disintegration of the Soviet empire and the end of the Cold war involve a redistribution of diplomatic alliances which marginalizes Arafat on the international scene. Moreover, the Russian government authorizes the emigration towards Israel several hundreds of thousands of its nationals of Jewish confession.

Seeking an exit with her insulation, Yasser Arafat is combined with Saddam Hussein, from which it would have received from financial aid, and does not condemn the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq, which is perceived like a treason by the Kuwait.

In the days which precede the invasion, Yasser Arafat made the shuttle between Baghdad and Kuwait City to try to impose its mediation. But its Kuwaiti interlocutors noticed that it seemed to be curiously receptive with the arguments of Saddam Hussein.

The two pilots of the plane of the Palestinian leader as well as an engineer find death and Arafat suffers only from some contusions.

See also: Letters of mutual recognition exchanged between Arafat and Rabin

Arafat with the capacity

Yasser Arafat takes her districts with Gaza as from July 1994 and receives a triumphal reception. The agreement known as “Oslo II”, concluded in September 1995, allows the behavior of general elections in January 1996 which oppose Arafat to Samiha Khalil. Arafat is elected under the control of international observers, with 87,1  % of the votes cast, president of the news Palestinian Authority, born from the agreements of Oslo.

November 4th, 1995, Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated at the time of an assembly for peace with Tel Aviv. Nabil Shaath tells I had never seen it like that. When Rabin died, I saw such an amount of sadness and despair in his eyes . The journalists John and Janet Wallah estimate that Arafat surely has fears to undergo the same fate . One advises in Arafat not to attend funerals. It sends representatives of the government then and a few days later will present its condolences to Leah Rabin.

November 19th, the Israeli army withdraws Jenin. It is about the first Israeli withdrawal and autonomy is wide. But the assassination of Yahia Ayache by the Shin Beth puts a term at the efforts of Yasser Arafat to convince the islamist movement Hamas to introduce candidates to the legislative elections.

Hamas answers by four attack-suicides making more than 60 Israeli victims. Arafat then makes stop islamist hundreds of activists, requires the closing of the Islamic university of Gaza and challenges five of the thirteen “terrorists” most sought by Israel.

April 21st, 1996, the 21e Palestinian National council modifies the articles of the Palestinian national Charte refusing the existence of the State of Israel.

In the years which follow, the Palestinian economy grows at intervals of 9,28  % per annum, according to a report/ratio of the the IMF, and investments of 150  %, which does of it one of the fastest rates of development in the world during this period.

After the elections of 1996, Arafat takes officially the title of Raïs (head) of the Palestinian Autorité.

The evolution of the peace process slows down and in October 1998, the US president Bill Clinton must persuade Arafat and the new Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahou, to lead them to sign the memorandum of Wye Plantation envisaging new stages to be undertaken to arrive at peace between the two parties.

Relation with Hamas

On the Palestinian scene, Arafat maintains bad relations with the Hamas. This one seemed to declare the war to him as of its return in the Palestinian territories. He sought to weaken it by supporting an Islamic party founded in 1995, that is to say one year after his return in the territories. Members of Hamas were also stopped: 170 sympathizers are thus stopped in 1995, at the time of its first year in the occupied territories.

Since its creation, Hamas rejects the co-operation with the PLO and on several occasions, its militants run up, on the ground, with the militants of Yasser Arafat. This one regards Hamas as a creation of the Mossad, the Israeli secret service.

When Arafat declares the end of the armed struggle against Israel the April 24th 1996, of the voices protest against its decision and the relations with Hamas are still degraded. The Palestinian Authority states to have thwarted an attempt to assassinate Arafat by the islamist movement and stops 7 people who were to assassinate it during Aïd el-Adha.

Also, Arafat assigns with residence Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas. (However, at the time of its assassination by Israel, on March 22nd, 2004, Yasser Arafat will denounce like a “barbarian crime” the assassination of Ahmed Yassin and will issue three days of mourning in the Palestinian territories).

Dispute of the capacity

If, on the external level, its mode must face many charges of Corruption and violation of the democratic rules - some show Arafat to be corrupted and of the figures circulate on the sums diverted towards an own account of Yasser Arafat (the report/ratio of the IMF regard at 800 million dollars, other sources to several billion) -, on the internal plan, the leadership of Yasser Arafat, who muzzles any attempt at opposition, does not appear that seldom to be called into question. According to Amnesty International, the political prisoners are often tortured, with its downstream. Bassam Eid, journalist Palestinian and directing of Palestinian Human Rights Monitor Group , confirms that “it is at the origin of each act of his security services it releases them after an investigation can”.

November 28th, 1999, 20 Palestinian intellectuals and politicians sign a petition treating the Palestinian government of corrupted, not just and manipulator . Arafat orders the stop of 11 of them. The 9 remainders are protected by law and are not stopped, but two of them say to be attacked by the Palestinian police force.

It is also shown to take part in the conditioning of the Palestinian population to the war against Israel, the school, with the mosque, by the press and television.

Criticisms do not come only from the opponents in a Palestinian State. Thus, for example, the “Palestinian Center for the human rights” shows the Palestinian Authority to carry out political arrests of islamist militants. Mohammed Dahlan, ex-minister of the interior, shows Arafat to have wasted 5 billion dollars what pushes Arafat to be tried on several occasions to draw aside Dahlan after these charges carried against him.

Summit of Camp David

See also: Summit of Camp David II

In July 2000, the top of Camp David between Yasser Arafat and Ehud Barak evokes the recognition of a Palestinian State. It ridges nevertheless on many points. At the conclusion of the top, each of the two parts rejects the responsibility for the failure of the discussions on the other part. The Palestinians consider that Israel did not propose to them enough, while the Israelis protest that they cannot reasonably offer more. To the United States as in Israel, the failure is largely allotted to Yasser Arafat who, for them, had left the table of the negotiations without making counter-proposal.

From 2000 to 2004, the second Intifada

See also: the Second Intifada

Second intifada, failure of Taba and election of Ariel Sharon

The the Second Intifada is initiated in September 2000, following the failure of the israélo-Palestinian discussions; it turns quickly to the open war with Israel. The visit of the member of Parliament of the Likoud, Ariel Sharon, on the Esplanade of the mosques/Mont of the Temple is lived by them like a provocation. The day before, Arafat requires Israeli of the Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, to cancel this visit because according to him, it is likely to cause new bloody riots. Barak cannot prohibit this political act of Sharon.

This visit is the starting point of month of violence that Arafat does not manage to control. Attack-suicides, aiming at the civil population, are perpetrated in Israel. Impotent to calm the revolt, including among the Falcons of Fatah, Arafat decides to join Intifada by diffusing a call in which it exhorts the Palestinians to be raised against “the Israeli usurper”. But it is the faction of Fatah directed by Marouan Barghouti, which does not receive any order of Arafat, who directs this second intifada.

In a drawn up report on this subject, Human Rights Watch states not to have found an evidence that Yasser Arafat or the Palestinian Authority never took part in the implementation of these attacks, but stresses that the latter did not make sufficiently to continue the organizers and did not take precautionary measures. As Kenneth Roath, executive director of Human rights watch, declares as Arafat and the Palestinian Authority carry a high degree of political responsibility in the atrocities which occurred. According to the Israeli official sources, 506 people found death in the attack-suicides between 2000 and 2004 and they show the Palestinian leaders not to have done anything to stop the kamikazes and even having encouraged them.

Peace negotiations are committed in the urgency in January 2001 during the Sommet of Taba whereas violences on the ground multiply. They do not succeed, the day before anticipated elections in Israel.

According to Al-Jazeera, Arafat also refuses the proposals of the US president Bill Clinton to give up the right to the return of the Palestinian Réfugiés in exchange of the statute of Jerusalem like capital of Palestine and of Israel. According to one of her guards of body, Arafat would have said to Clinton that if it accepted this offer, it would be killed with the hands of its own people. Arab personalities, as the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, has a presentiment of Arafat to accept this offer but this one answers that is impossible.

The talks of Taba are stopped, on January 27th, 2001, after six days of intense negotiations following the setting in term with the discussions by Shlomo Ben-Friend, Foreign Minister and chief of the Israeli delegation to the request express of Ehoud Barak.

In February 2001, Ariel Sharon is elected Prime Minister while with the the United States, George W. Bush is elected president.

Ariel Sharon does not seek to continue the negotiations with Yasser Arafat only it does not judge like a valid interlocutor.

Insulation in Mouqata' has

The attacks of the September 11th, 2001 precipitate the United States in the “war against terrorism” starting from December 2001, whereas at the same moment, Yasser Arafat concludes a truce with the Hamas and the Islamic Jihad Palestinian.

Regarded as person in charge of the release of the second Intifada and the attack-suicides by the Israeli government, boycotted by the US government, Yasser Arafat will spend the last years of its life locked up in the Mouqata' has, its HQ of Ramallah, encircled by the Israeli forces. Interdict of voyage as well in Palestine as abroad, it will lose very taken on the events, keeping however the control of the Palestinian Authority and the PLO.

For the Israeli persons in charge, the president of the Palestinian Authority is not any more one valid interlocutor. A creed shared by Washington, which makes of its departure a prerequisite with the creation of an independent Palestinian State and calls them Palestinians to elect new leaders who are not compromised in terrorism .

Under the terms of the reforms required by Israel and the United States, Yasser Arafat must however resign himself, in February 2003, to name a Prime Minister who will be Mahmoud Abbas. Two years and half after the beginning of the the Second Intifada, the post of Prime Minister, who was not envisaged with the creation of the Palestinian Autorité, is imposed on Arafat by the Westerners, in particular by the Americans, who see a way there of circumventing the obstacle with the peace which for them Arafat became controlling only. For them, one needs a new interlocutor. Washington makes pressure then so that this post of Prime Minister within the Palestinian Authority is created.

An arm wrestling quickly opposes Arafat to its Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. In the center of the divergences, the Roadmap for peace and the proposal of Mahmoud Abbas to name Mohammed Dahlan at the post of minister of the Interior. Following a conflict of being able with Yasser Arafat around the question of the control of the security forces, Mahmoud Abbas gives up her station on September 7th, 2003. The refusal of Arafat to confer essential capacities to him, like its maintenance of the control of certain security services, limited the capacity to act of the ex-First Minister. Ahmed Qorei is then named in its place.

It is in 2003 also that members of the Sharon government go as far as publicly proposing “to eliminate it”. The very strong reaction of the international community forces the Sharon government to retract.

Following these threats, the pacifist Israeli, Uri Avnery, declare in his leading article for the Gush Shalom, being ready to be used for like human shield to protect Arafat. It goes with a group of pacifist in Mouqata' has where Arafat invites them to dine. During the dinner, Arafat declares “I were then and I remain committed today in the hope of a pacified future, a future in which the children of our two people will be able to grow without the fear”.

In the tread, Sharon confirms that, if Arafat leaves Ramallah and the autonomous territories to go abroad, it will not be authorized to return whereas official American considers his fortune high of 1 billion dollar. His wife would have received whereas she lived in Paris: 100000 dollars each month on behalf of the Palestinian authority.

Arafat is also shown to finance the Palestinian terrorism and to use the international assistances to buy weapons. Certain authors groups of attack-suicides in Israel are directly related to the Palestinian Raïs. Maslama Thabet, one of the leaders of the group, being expressed in the USA Today daily newspaper, affirms: " we receive our instructions of Fatah. Our chief is Yasser Arafat him-même".

Israel publishes documents found in the files of Arafat, proving that this one had tacitly approved the attacks perpetrated by the Brigades of the Al-Aqsa martyrs. On its side, the European Union investigation into the allegations of diversion of its assistances by the Palestinian Authority. The Anti-Fraud Office off the European Union (OLAF) concludes that there does not exist any proof that assistances were diverted to finance illegal activities. But she adds that the EU is convinced that the Authority must reform its financial institutions to fight against the corruption and the embezzlements.

Private life

When it settled with the Kuwait, Arafat makes fortune and carries out a luxurious life.

Its love life was a long time a subject of discussion in his/her friends. Bassam Abou Charif, one of his/her companions of university, tells that Arafat had become acquainted with an Egyptian young person , with which it had fallen in love. He asked it in marriage but his/her parents refused, which would have affected Arafat, at the point not to more think of the marriage of 1955 to 1967, tells Salah Khalaf. In 1967, it falls in love with a young person Jordan, but their relation does not lead because of its activities. The journalist Uruguay enne Isabel Pisano, who devoted an intimate biography to him, declares that she would have lived a close relation with him. She also declares that the first love of Arafat was Nada Yasruti which, according to her, was a former Lebanon miss. However, no woman bearing this name gained the competition.

Finally, with the beginning of the year '90, Arafat secretly marries with Tunis her secretary, Souha Tawil, Palestinian 34 years her junior, girl of an important Christian family. Souha Arafat will convert shortly after with Islam and they will have a girl, Zahwa together, born on July 24th, 1995 with Paris.

The death of Yasser Arafat

detailed Article: Hospitalization and death of Yasser Arafat

In October 2004, Arafat complains about pains to the stomach and vomiting. In spite of the first surgical operation in its general headquarter of the Mouqata' has with Ramallah, in the West Bank, the October 25th, its health continues to degrade itself. October 29th, 2004, seriously sick, Yasser Arafat Ramallah leaves to join the Jordan, from where it goes in France, on board a medicalized plane. He is hospitalized in the hospital of instruction of the armies Percy to Clamart.

He dies officially with Clamart on November 11th, 2004, 3:30, Paris time, in the second part of the month of Ramadan. Mahmoud Abbas is named chief of the Liberation organization of Palestine, Farouk Kaddoumi is elected chief of Fatah, and Ahmed Qorei maintained in her functions of chief of the government. After an official homage to the military aerodrome of Villacoublay in the presence of French the Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and an official ceremony with the Cairo, in the presence of many foreign politics representatives, Yasser Arafat is buried the November 12th, in Mouqata' has, her last general headquarter of Ramallah, in the West Bank, the Israeli government having refused that it is buried with Jerusalem (Yasser Arafat had on several occasions expressed the wish to be buried there). A crowd of almost: 100000 people is present to accommodate her skin on its return of Egypt.

The Palestinian presidential election of 2005 is held the January 9th according to the death of Arafat and indicates Mahmoud Abbas like new president of the Palestinian Authority. The duties are taken over temporarily by Rawhi Fattuh.

Glances on Yasser Arafat

In Israel

Arafat was often regarded as the enemy number 1 by Israel. It was described of “terrorist chief” and “congenital liar”, even of “reincarnation of Hitler”.

In the Arab world

The Arab leaders as a whole never carried Yasser Arafat in their heart. Four of them in particular: Nasser, Hussein of Jordan, Anouar el-Sadate and Hafez el-Assad now died, maintained with him the difficult, complex and ambivalent relations. Indeed, the Arab leaders wanted instrumentaliser the Palestinian cause to extend their regional influence and considered that the emergence of an unverifiable Palestinian direction, would disturb their plans.

For this reason Nasser created PLO. Nasser, initially opposed to Arafat, ends up becoming her ally, sometimes disappointing. Arafat knew on several occasions the prison under her mode, especially when it was close to the Muslim brothers.

The Syrian Hafez El-Assad, who imprisoned Arafat in May 1966.

In the " street arabe" , the popularity of Arafat started to grow after the war of 1967. It was considered there that its combatants saved the honor of the Arabs . Shaken by the defeat, the civilians as well as the soldiers give their support to him. After the battle of Karameh, regarded as a victory by the Arabs, Arafat official funeral for the dead fedayins organizes. Tens of thousands of people assist to with it, stressing: Fatah! Fatah! Fatah! .

After the signature of the agreements of Oslo, Arafat is authorized to return in the territories for the first time since 1967. It carries out a triumphal return. Million Palestinians accommodates " the hero of OLP" in Gaza.

The image of Arafat is degraded during the years which follow because of the blocking of the peace process and the degradation of the situation of the Palestinians, but the seat of its residence in Ramallah does nothing but increase its popularity near the latter.

Appendices

Random links:

Execution by elephant | Eudromia | Louise Renee de Penancoët de Keroual | Casole Bruzio | Peter Rzehak