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By Richard Engel
JERUSALEM, July 10 (AFP)-Yasser Arafat, who will be taking part from Tuesday in a make-or-break summit with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and U.S. President Bill Clinton in Camp David, has been the emblem of Palestinians' struggles for a sovereign Palestinian state for four decades. Tough and tenacious, but also short-tempered and romantic, Arafat has carved out a small patchwork kingdom in the West Bank and Gaza Strip where, within tight geographic constraints, he exercises total control under the watchful eye of Israel. Yasser Arafat was born Mohammed Abdel-Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Hussaini in Cairo on August 4, 1929, although his resumé, posted on his official website, states that he was born in "Jerusalem, Palestine." Arafat was running guns to Palestinian groups fighting against the creation of the Jewish state by the time he was 17. He joined in the 1947-48 wars between Israel and its Arab neighbors, which led to the foundation of the Jewish state. Shattered by Israel's crushing victory, Arafat returned to Egypt and to Cairo University, where he studied engineering and became involved in Palestinian political circles. Falling afoul of Egyptian president Gamal Abdul Nasser, he then left for Kuwait, where he founded the Fatah movement in 1959 to fight the Jewish state. In February 1969, Arafat, known as Abu Ammar, was elected chairman of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and walked on to the world stage in his trademark Arab headdress, or khaffiya, and green fatigues. Short and paunchy, Arafat rose to leadership through the force of his fiery personality, his acute instinct for political survival and his total dedication to the cause. Arafat's odyssey landed him in Tunisia, after being expelled from Jordan by the late king Hussein's troops in 1970 and from Lebanon by Israeli forces in 1982. With military options running out and the eruption of the domestically inspired and controlled Palestinian uprising, or intifada, in the West Bank and Gaza strip in 1987, Arafat gradually opted for negotiating with Israel. He publicly renounced terrorism in December 1988, shortly after the PLO had recognized Israel's right to exist. In 1993, in a groundbreaking event that changed the face of the Middle East, Arafat came to the White House to sign with then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres the Oslo accords on Palestinian autonomy. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 along with Rabin and Peres. Arafat returned to the Palestinian territories in July 1994 and was elected president of the Palestinian Authority in early 1996. Arafat, who turns 71 next month, continues to work long hours and to travel widely, but a nervous disorder, usually attributed to Parkinson's disease, causes his lower lip to tremble and, when tired, he appears frail. In 1992, Arafat, a devout Sunni Muslim, married an assistant, Suha Tawil, the daughter of a Palestinian Christian family. They have one daughter. His dreams, however, remain the return of occupied east Jerusalem, and to pray in the Aqsa mosque, the third holiest place in Islam. Arafat's lightly armed authority now controls, either partially or fully, about 65 percent of the Gaza Strip and 40 percent of the West Bank, but is highly dependent on the good graces of Israel. |
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