Yasser Arafat was born in 1929 as Abdel-Rahman Abdel-Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini. He was likely born in Gaza even though there are reports he was born in Jerusalem or even Cairo.
His mother passed away when he was four, leaving the responsibility of raising him to his older sister.
As a teenager, Arafat was involved in assisting Palestinian fighters resisting Jewish attempts to take control over Palestine. It has been reported that young Arafat helped smuggle weapons to the fighters in the 1948 war.
Like many students from the Gaza Strip, he travelled to Egypt for studies. There, he formed the Palestinian Graduate Association.
Among other missions, this group sent volunteers to the Egyptian front to resist British, French and Israeli forces during the Suez crisis in 1956.
In 1958, following his graduation with an engineering degree, Arafat got employment in Kuwait. There, he met several Palestinian figures such as Abu Jihad and Abu Eiad and discussed with them the establishment of the Palestine National Liberation Movement "Fateh". Later, he went back to Palestine to meet a group of Palestinian activists and announced the launching of the Fateh movement on the 1st of Jan 1965.
By forming Fatah, Arafat sought to attract more international attention to the plight of his people and maily the Palestinian refugees.
In 1965, Fatah opened its first office in Algeria within Arafat's efforts to seek a greater Arab awareness of the Palestinian issue.
In the mid-60s, Fatah has launched its military actions against Israel from various Arab territories. Arafat believed that armed struggle was the only option left for the Palestinians to regain their lands and freedom.
He insisted that Palestinians were the only people to manage the war with Israel. This stance has often been a source of conflict between him and various Arab leaders.
He remained in Jerusalem untill 1967 when he moved to Jordan. Three times he returned to Palestine in clandestine. Arafat led the platoons of the Liberation Movement at "El-Karama Battle" in 1968 to a tremendous victory over the Israeli army, assisted by the Arab Jordanian army.
In 1970, thousands of Palestinians were slaughtered in Jordan's crackdown in what became known as "Black September."
Palestinian factions were forced out of Jordan into Lebanon, with Arafat elected as the chairman of the PLO's executive committee.
In 1974, the PLO had become an observer in the United Nations and Arafat dramatically appeared at the UN bearing an olive branch and a gun. He said: "Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand."
In Lebanon, PLO fighters established strong bases, from which they launched attacks against Israel. However, Palestinian factions quickly found themselves involved in a deadly civil war in Lebanon.
With the growing number of attacks on its northern settlements, Israel invaded Lebanon. In 1978, Israel conducted a small-scale invasion and occupied a small part of the country. In 1982, it carried out a full-scale invasion and its forces reached Beirut in order to expel Arafat's fighters out of Lebanon.
Israeli forces besieged the Lebanon capital, and Arafat's departure was the price for lifting the siege.
The Palestinian leader and his fighters were sent to Tunisia.
Shortly after the PLO's departure, the slaughter of over 2,000 refugees in the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps took place under the nose of the Israeli occupation forces.
In November 1988, the PLO's Palestinian National Council declared the independent state of Palestine, with Jerusalem as its capital. Arafat read the declaration of independence and later publicly rejected "all forms of violence" and met US conditions for dialogue.
In 1988, Arafat again addressed the UN General Assembly, declaring the PLO's acceptance of Israel's right to exist.
That declaration was aimed to open doors for Arafat and the PLO in Washington. Other Palestinian faction leaders considered this new approach as an insult to the Palestinian struggle for independence.
In 1989, the Palestinian Central Council declared Arafat president of the Palestinian state.
In 1991, Palestinian envoys held peace talks in Madrid, under the auspices of the US and Russia. Israel did not agree to the inclusion of Arafat in the Palestinian delegation.
Arafat, however, was sponsoring another round of secret peace talks in Norway, which brought about the Oslo accords in 1993.
According to the Oslo accords, Israel would grant the Palestinians limited territorial sovereignty and partial control over civil affairs in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
It also established the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) with Arafat as its president.
The Oslo agreement were officially signed at the White House by Arafat and then Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Both Arafat and Rabin were awarded the Nobel peace prize for their efforts (along with Israeli FM, Shimon Peres).
However, on the ground, Palestinians noticed little difference, aside from 1994 return of Arafat to Gaza Strip accompanied by thousands of his former fighters.
The Oslo accords were followed by other peace agreements, starting with the Cairo accords of 1994, which kickstarted Israel's limited withdrawal scheme, beginning with "Gaza-Jericho first".
According to elections held in 1996 and regarded as transparent by various international observers, Arafat won 83% of the votes to be elected president of the PNA.
He went on to sign the Wye River Accord in 1998.
A setback in the peace process was observed when the "final status" negotiations started. Arafat and Israeli PM failed in the summer of 2000 to reach an agreement on issues such as Jerusalem, refugees' right of return, illegal Jewish settlements, borders and water.
After the talks collapsed, Arafat, who was reportedly under pressure to concede sovereignty over Jerusalem, was held responsible by US president Bill Clinton and Barak.
The Palestinians' frustration culminated in September 2000 in a full-scale uprising, sparked by a visit by current Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon - then opposition leader - to their holiest shrine in Jerusalem.
Arafat's relationship with the US has deteriorated since the outbreak of the al-Aqsa intifada.
President George Bush accused Arafat of deliberately using violence to halt the peace process and refused to meet with him.
Israel, too, declared Arafat "irrelevant" to the peace process and placed him under virtual house arrest at his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah in March 2002.
Since his confinement, Israel has pondered three options, to capture, deport or kill the Palestinian president.
Late in October 2004, Arafat was airlifted to a French hospital from the West Bank following a serious deterioration in his health. He died in a Paris hospital on Nov. 11, 2004. (albawaba.com)
