Yasser Arafat

Background Information

Important Dates

1929
Mohammed Abdel-Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini born to a merchant family in Cairo, Egypt.

1933
After his mother's death he is sent to live with his uncle in Jerusalem.

1937
Returns to Cairo after his father's remarriage.

1947
Partition of Palestine by the UN after World War II and the Holocaust.

1948-9
Exodus of over half of the Palestinians living in Palestine at the foundation of Israel.

1952
Colonel Gamal Abdul Nasser seizes power in Egypt. Arafat becomes chairman of the Palestinian Students League in Cairo.

1956

Suez Crisis.

1967

Six Day War.

1968

Arafat becomes president of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

1970
First Palestinian hijack.

1971
Palestinians expelled from Jordan.

1972
Munich massacre of Israeli Olympic athletes.

1973
Yom Kippur War.

1974
Arafat speaks at the United Nations General Assembly.

1982
Israelis invade Lebanon and destroy PLO bases. Arafat sets up a base in Tunis.

1987
Start of the Palestinian Intifada.

1988
PLO acknowledges Israel's right to exist. The US agrees to dialogue with the PLO.

1991
Middle East peace conference in Madrid.

1993
Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Rabin shake hands in Washington.

Key Terms, People and Events

Black September
Palestinians' name for their defeat in Lebanon in 1970.

PLO
Palestine Liberation Organisation, founded in 1964 by the Arab states. Taken over by Fatah in 1969.

Fatah
Literally 'Conquest'. Largest Palestinian grouping, founded in 1958 by Arafat and others.

Fedayeen
Literally 'Those who sacrifice themselves'. Arab guerrilla fighters, often prepared to die for their cause.

Intifada
Literally the 'Shaking'. Popular uprising in Israeli-occupied territories, since 1987.

PFLP
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Marxist grouping led by George Habash. Influential in the Palestinian movement.

Occupied Territories
The West Bank and Gaza Strip, captured by Israel in 1967.

Jihad
'Holy War'.

Hizbollah
Literally 'Party of God'. Fundamentalist party in Lebanon.

Six Day War
War in June 1967 between Israel and the Arab states, in which Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights.

Yom Kippur War
War in 1973 between the Arab states and Israel.

Zionism
Jewish nationalist movement which claims Palestine as the Jewish homeland.

Resolution 242
Crucial United Nations Resolution which is referred to in all attempts to solve the Middle Eastern conflict. Calls for 'Israeli withdrawal from territories of recent conflict' (meaning the 1967 war), and 'respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty [...] of every state in the area'. The only reference to Palestinians is a call for a 'just settlement' of the refugee problem.

Camp David Accords
Agreements signed in 1978 between Israel, Egypt and the US. Led to the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty.

Questions

1.What has been Arafat's greatest contribution to the progress the Palestinians have made?

2.Arafat has repeatedly failed to predict how Israel would defeat the Palestinians in battles.

Why has he survived as their leader for so long?

3.Yasser Arafat told the United Nations: 'I come bearing an olive branch and a freedom

fighter's gun.' Which has been more important in Arafat's career?

4.Why have most Arab countries been such apparently reluctant supporters of the Palestine

Liberation Organisation?

5.The prime minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, shortly before his assassination in

November 1995, quoted the words of the celebrated Israeli writer Amos Os: 'You don't

make peace with your friends, you make peace with your enemies.' To what extent did

Rabin's pursuit of this policy account for the subsequent election of the more right-wing

Benjamin Netanyahu?

Background Information

The conflict between Arabs and Jews has a long history. An independent Jewish state known as Judea existed in biblical times (around 140 BC). However, by later centuries the same land, now known as Palestine, had developed an Arab speaking Muslim majority. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the arrival of Jewish settlers from Europe encouraged the development of Zionism, the movement to create a modern Jewish state in Palestine.

At the end of the First World War, Palestine had come under the control of Britain, but in the attempt to seek support for its war effort, the British government had made conflicting promises to both Arabs and Jews.

In the MacMahon Pledge of 1916, the British government promised ‘subject to modifications... to support the independence of the Arabs in all the regions demanded’. By 1917, however, promises were also being made to the Jews. AJ Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary, wrote to a leading Zionist ‘His Majesty's Government views with favour the setting up in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people’.

During the 1920s Jews arrived to settle in Palestine at the rate of 810,000 per year. This influx of people alarmed the local Arabs and in 1922 Winston Churchill tried to reassure the Arabs by suggesting that Britain had promised the Jews only a national home and not a Jewish state.

In the 1930s the problems became worse. Jewish riots broke out when, in 1933, the British, under Arab pressure, restricted the number of Jews entering Palestine. By 1936, with anti-Semitism at its height in Europe, 60,000 Jews were allowed into Palestine. In 1918, Jews made up only 10% of the population of Palestine but by 1939 this figure had risen to 40%. The local Arabs became increasingly uneasy. In 1937 an Arab revolt led the British to create the Peel Commission. This group reported that Palestine ought to be divided. The Arabs, however, continued to reject the idea of a Jewish state.

The extermination of millions of Jews in German concentration camps during the Second World War convinced many people of the need for a permanent Jewish state. However, the British government was worried by Arab reactions and continued to restrict the number of Jews entering Palestine. Both Arabs and Jews set up their own paramilitary organisations. In.1 946 a Jewish group, the Stem Gang, blew up the British Military Headquarters in Jerusalem causing the deaths of 91 people.

By 1947, the British government decided it could no longer administer Palestine and turned to the United Nations for a solution. The UN decided to create a Jewish and Arab state in Palestine, but when, on 14th May 1947, the British finally withdrew and the new state of Israel was proclaimed, it was immediately attacked by the surrounding Arab countries.

The Arab-Israeli conflict had entered a new era, but the suffering and destruction remained much at the same levels. The Arab forces were badly co-ordinated and failed to make use of their greater numbers. At the same time the Israelis had the support of the USA and USSR. By early 1949 the Israelis controlled all of Palestine except the West Bank of the Jordan and the Gaza Strip. This became the new State of Israel. As the Israelis consolidated their state about 1 million Palestinian Arabs left Palestine.

In the 1950s the tension in the Middle East rose steadily. Soviet support for Israel turned to opposition, and the USSR and its allies signed arms deals with Israel’s Arab neighbours. Egypt came under the control of General Abdel Nasser, an Arab nationalist and Syria, Egypt and Jordan began planning military operations against Israel. Matters came to a head in 1956 with the Suez Crisis. Nasser declared that the Suez canal was Egyptian property. He seized it from joint control by the UK and France. The UK, France and Israel collaborated to invade Egypt and overthrow Nasser. Israel’s role involved a successful invasion of the Sinai peninsula, but the USA and the UNO condemned the attack. Israeli, British and French forces had to withdraw.

The 1960s saw a revival in Palestinian campaigning. In 1964 the Palestine Liberation Organisation was established and launched guerrilla attacks on Israel. The Israeli response was devastating. In the Six Day War of 1967 they gained control of the Gaza Strip and Sinai peninsula from Egypt, the Golan Heights from Syria and the West Bank of the Jordan from Jordan. Israeli forces took the eastern half of Jerusalem. This was seen by Jews as a major triumph, but was to become a continual source of controversy. Israel’s triumphs also brought large numbers of Palestinians under Israeli control.

The 1970s saw attacks on Israelis by Palestinian groups. In 1972, 11 Israeli athletes were killed at the Munich Olympics. PLO forces also launched attacks against Israeli forces and civilians from bases in Jordan and then Lebanon. As a result of one attack in 1970 the PLO were expelled from Lebanon in 1971 because they were seen as a threat to the country’s leader King Hussein. Throughout the period Egypt built up its armed forces, with the help of the USSR. Egypt’s Soviet-built anti aircraft missiles were seen as a the key weapon to counter the threat of the Israeli air force. In October 1973 Egyptian and Syrian forces mounted a surprise attack on Israel during the religious festival of Yom Kippur. The Israelis suffered early defeats but recovered by mid-October.

As Middle East conflicts continued the USA began to look for political solutions in the Middle East. This was partly a result of pressure from the Arab oil-producing states. In 1974 the Arab nations recognised the PLO as the body which represented the Palestinian people. Yasser Arafat, leader of the PLO, addressed the United Nations General Assembly. US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger carried out his ‘shuttle diplomacy’ between Egypt and Israel. After much negotiation Israel withdrew its forces from Sinai. At the same time, however, Jewish settlements on the West Bank began to be built. They continued to expand for the next 20 years. The number of settlers rose from around 4,000 to around 100,000.

In 1978 US President Jimmy Carter acted as a go-between in negotiations between Egypt and Israel. In September President Anwar Sadat of Egypt signed the Camp David Peace Deal with the new Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin. Sadat was heavily criticised by other Arab states and Egypt became isolated.

There seemed little hope for compromise. In 1982 Israeli armed forces invaded Southern Lebanon with the aim of destroying the PLO. Resistance was very fierce and Israel got bogged down in a difficult conflict with heavy casualties, most of them civilians. PLO leaders were eventually forced out of Lebanon. They set up new headquarters in Tunisia. Lebanese Christian militia, allied to the Israelis, carried out appalling massacres at the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila.

In December 1987 a new Palestinian tactic proved to be remarkably effective against Israeli forces. It became known as the Intifada (in translation it means ‘shaking off’). This was an uprising of mainly younger Palestinians against Israeli rule. It involved rioting, and stoning and petrol bombing the Israeli troops. The Israeli response was harsh and brutal: it included curfews, beatings and the shooting of over 1,000 Palestinians. As a result Israel lost much support from its allies, especially the USA. At the same time the Palestinian cause gained support.

Concern increased in 1988 as many Palestinians began to support a new radical Islamic organisation, Hamas, rather than the PLO. Hamas was far more violent and extreme than Arafat’s organisation. Partly in response to this development King Hussein of Jordan abandoned his claims that the West Bank was part of Jordan. This opened the way for the West Bank to become a Palestinian homeland. PLO leader Yasser Arafat began to establish better relations with the USA, UK and other allies of Israel.

The road to a settlement was not simple. In 1990-91 increasing tension in the Iranian Gulf resulted in the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent Gulf War. Yasser Arafat’s support for Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein damaged the PLO. Initial peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians were held in Madrid, but achieved little. In 1992 Israel voted in a new government under Yitzhak Rabin. This government was prepared to compromise with the Palestinians and reached an historic agreement at secret talks in Oslo. The Oslo Accord was announced in September in Washington.

Palestinians gained control of Gaza and much of the West Bank and had an armed police force to control these areas. However, Israeli troops remained in these areas to protect Israeli settlers.

It was peace of a kind, and Arafat saw it as a tremendous achievement for himself and the Palestinian people. However, others, many of them within the Palestinian cause, were less enthusiastic than Arafat. Many challenges to peace remained, including the radicals within the Palestinian movement, and the actions of Israeli politicians as well.