Faculty Forum
The (Unverified) Life of Yasser Arafat

By Jim Ross-Nazzal

This is the first essay in a three-part series on the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine.

Jim Ross-Nazzal

There may not be a more controversial figure in Palestinian history than Yasser Arafat. To some he was a crude, shortsighted, corrupt, and brutal terrorist. To others, Abu Ammar—Arafat’s nom de guerre—was the military, political, and social leader of the Palestinian people worldwide from the mid-1960s on. He was a freedom fighter. He was a savior. But regardless of personal views, most agree that Arafat was the physical manifestation of Palestinian identity and his death will certainly effect not only Palestinian identity, but also the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

This essay examines Arafat’s life, rather than the effects of his life. This is worthy of attention, because not only can one debate Arafat’s significance to the umbrellic Arab-Israeli conflict, but his biographical information is not set in stone.

There is no single, accepted version of Yasser Arafat’s life. His place of birth, date of birth, and even his birth name are debatable. Born Muhammad ‘Abd al-Ra’uf al-Qidwa al-Husayni or Rahman ‘Abd al-Ra’uf Arafat al-Qidwa al-Husseini sometime between August 4 and August 27, 1929, Arafat would rise to lead the independent Palestinian movement when the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) broke away from its Egyptian creators in the late 1960s. Even Arafat’s birthplace is in doubt. While most sources name Cairo, Egypt, as his birthplace, others believe he was born in Gaza (possible) or Jerusalem (highly improbable).

Arafat reportedly took an active role in Palestinian self-determination. For example, he would claim to have fought under the auspices of ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni (founder and leader of the all-volunteer Palestinian military organization al-Jihad al-Muqaddas, or the Holy War Army) and with the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza and Jerusalem against Jewish forces during the 1948 War. Some claim that he continued working for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt by attacking British targets in and around the Suez in the early 1950s. He is also reported to have fought in the Egyptian military against the Israeli, British, and French invasion of Egypt in 1956.

At that time, he was also a student of engineering at what is now Cairo University. Arafat was a transient student, spending some time in school and some time in various military organizations, usually involved in raids across the Gaza border into Israel proper. As an undergraduate, Arafat became active with numerous student organizations such as the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) and the Palestine Students Union (PSU). According to most sources, Arafat returned to school and created the GUPS after his brother died in an Israeli attack, probably in 1956. GUPS was not an independent organization; rather, the Egyptian government, led at that time by the exceptionally charismatic Gamal Nasser, nominally controlled it.

There were many Palestinian groups claiming to speak on the behalf of the Palestinian people in the 1950s and 1960s. One such group was called al-Fatal (“The Conquest,” as well as a reverse acronym for “Movement for the Liberation of Palestine”). Fatah, created and led by Yasser Arafat in 1957 while he was living in Kuwait, though largely ignored by Arab countries, was at first merely one example of hundreds of Palestinian organizations. Other accounts place the birth of Fatah in Cairo. Some sources even say that Arafat never belonged to the organization until 1965, when he joined the military wing of Fatah, called al-Assifa. Nonetheless, in 1959, Fatah became a political party, possibly with Arafat as its leader. It was not until 1965, however, that Arafat publicly unveiled Fatah, due in part to his wish to challenge the Arab League’s push to control the Palestinian movement through their creation of their own Palestinian organization called the PLO.

In 1964 and 1965, the Arab League created an umbrellic Palestinian organization called the Palestine Liberation Organization in Jerusalem. Relatively under the control of the Nasser government and headquartered in Cairo, the PLO tried to gain command and control over every Palestinian organization, society, or union. Arafat played a role in the earliest manifestations of the PLO; however, the extent of that role is unclear. His military-political movement, Fatah, was one of numerous military wings of the umbrellic PLO. Nonetheless, Fatah sought a military solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict and thus continued to launch raids against Israeli targets from both Gaza and the West Bank.

The 1967 War would change the nature of the PLO and its leadership, and it would launch Yasser Arafat into the worldwide spotlight as the eminent leader/spokesman/villain of the Palestinian cause.