A life of struggle
Arafat was born into a Sunni Muslim family in Jerusalem on August 4, 1929. The young Arafat witnessed the suffering of the Palestinian people under British occupation and the plight of large numbers of Palestinians who were homeless and displaced everywhere after the end of the first Middle East war. All this left a painful and profound memory for Arafat when he was a teenager, and also strengthened his determination to devote his life to the Palestinian national liberation movement.
In 1948, at the age of 19, Arafat joined his father and brother in the first Middle East War against Israel. In 1950, he entered the Department of Civil Engineering at Cairo University and was elected president of the Palestinian Students' Union. The young Arafat witnessed the suffering of the Palestinian people under British occupation and the plight of large numbers of Palestinians who were homeless and displaced everywhere after the end of the first Middle East war. All this left a painful and profound memory for Arafat when he was a teenager, and also strengthened his determination to devote his life to the Palestinian national liberation movement. After graduating from Cairo University, he attended the Egyptian Military Academy.
After graduating from college, Arafat began building a secret group in 1957 under the pseudonym "ABU Ammar", which would later become known as the "Palestinian National Liberation Movement" (Fatah).
In 1959, Arafat formed the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) with like-minded middle-class Palestinians in Kuwait. He served as commander in chief of the group's Stormstorm commando unit.（Pictured are Yasser Arafat and Egyptian leader Gamal Nasser）
In 1964, Yasser Arafat and other Palestinian resistance leaders convened the first Palestine National Council in Jerusalem, at which the Palestine Liberation Organization was established. He rose to fame after commanding Jordanian and Palestinian forces in the Battle of Karama on March 21, 1968, against an Israeli attack of 15,000 troops. In 1969, he was elected chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and in just a few years, he integrated the Palestinian resistance forces into a leading and organized armed force, realizing the independent leadership of the Palestinian national liberation movement.
In November 1974, Arafat led the PLO delegation to the 29th session of the United Nations General Assembly, where he famously said: "I have come here with an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun, please do not let the olive branch fall from my hand."
In 1988, the Palestinian National Council declared the establishment of a Palestinian state. On April 2, 1989, Arafat was elected president of Palestine, and since then, he has appeared on the world political stage as a symbol of the Palestinian nation. In September 1993, an aging Yasser Arafat clasped the hand of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and they signed the Declaration of Principles on Palestinian Autonomy in Washington, thus opening the curtain of political settlement of the Palestinian issue. Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin shook hands on the lawn of the White House, thus opening the curtain of political settlement of the Palestinian issue. Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres accepted the Nobel Peace Prize. On his return to Gaza in July 1994 after 27 years in exile, Arafat said, "I am very happy and my heart is full of longing to see my homeland again."
The legendary "Immortal Bird"
Arafat has been engaged in the cause of Palestinian national liberation for decades, and has experienced numerous battles and encountered numerous dangers. He has been arrested twice in Syria and once in Lebanon, and has been the target of more than 50 assassination attempts by rivals and even internal Palestinian radicals, but he has miraculously survived each time.
An old man in prison
Arafat, who repeatedly escaped death, spent his twilight years under house arrest. On December 3, 2001, Israeli forces invaded Ramallah and "besieged" Arafat in his residence. The Israeli side accused Arafat's Palestinian National Authority of being a "terrorist supporting entity", and the cabinet subsequently decided to prohibit Arafat from leaving Ramallah, and he has since lost his freedom of movement. At the end of March 2002, as a result of suicide bombings in Israel, the Israeli government declared that Arafat was an "enemy" and decided to adopt a policy of "absolute isolation" against him. Since then, on the pretext of fighting "terrorism", Israel has besieged Arafat's residence several times, and has taken extreme measures to cut off water, power and destroy the buildings in the residence to pressure him.
For more than three years, except for a brief visit to the West Bank city of Jenin, Arafat did not leave the Ramallah compound. On August 4 this year, Arafat spent his last birthday peacefully in his Ramallah residence.
Arafat, who devoted his life to the cause of Palestinian liberation, made it clear on many occasions that no one can drive me away in the face of Israeli threats. On October 29, as he left Ramallah for examination and treatment at the Belcy military Hospital in Paris, Arafat also said: "I will return if circumstances permit."
Arafat is gone
On November 11, 2004, the Secretary General of the Palestinian National Authority, Tayeb Abdel Rahim, officially announced in Ramallah that the President of the Palestinian National Authority, Yasser Arafat, died at the age of 75 in the Belsi Military Hospital on the outskirts of Paris, France.
Freedom fighters with guns
Arafat has been involved in the Palestinian National Liberation Movement for more than 50 years, making him not only a distinguished political leader in the cause of Palestinian liberation, but also a symbol of Palestine and the Middle East peace process between Palestine and Israel. The PLO and the Palestinian National Authority under his leadership have been recognized by most countries and international organizations. His special role in the Palestinian national liberation movement and his special contribution to the Middle East peace process are respected around the world, even by his Israeli opponents. Both Israelis and Palestinians and the entire international community clearly know that he is indispensable to the Middle East peace process.
Arafat in a black and white Pakistani keffiyeh.
