On 20 January 1996, Arafat was elected president of the PNA, with an overwhelming 88. 2 % majority ( the only other candidate was charity organizer Samiha Khalil ).

The founding members of Fatah, including Yasser Arafat and Khalil Wazir also flew to Lebanon to use the insurrection as a means by which a war could be fomented towards Israel.

The founders included Yasser Arafat who was head of the General Union of Palestinian Students ( GUPS ) ( 1952 – 56 ) in Cairo University, Salah Khalaf, Khalil al-Wazir, Khaled Yashruti was head of the GUPS in Beirut ( 1958 – 62 ).

In the same month, Sharon ordered Arafat to be confined to his Mukata ' a headquarters in Ramallah, following an attack in the Israeli city of Hadera ; US President George W. Bush supported Sharon's action, claiming that Arafat was " an obstacle to the peace.

In 1974 Arafat ordered the PLO to withdraw from acts of violence outside the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Israel.

According to a newspaper report of a lecture given by one of the leaders of Hamas, Mahmoud al-Zahar, at the Islamic University in Gaza City, when Yasser Arafat realized that peace talks with Israel weren ’ t going anywhere, he ordered Hamas to launch terror attacks against Israel.

The PLO leadership finally ordered a ceasefire on March 28, 1978, after a meeting between UNIFIL commander General Emmanual Erskine and Yasser Arafat in Beirut.

At the time of his departure for medical care in Paris in October 2004, Arafat was under house arrest in the compound for over two years.

On 14 December 1988, following an outcry from his 13 December General Assembly speech, Yasser Arafat called a press conference in Geneva to clarify his earlier statement by specifically mentioning the right of all parties concerned in the Middle East conflict to exist in peace and security, including the State of Palestine, Israel, and their neighbours.

Following the Suez Crisis in 1956, Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, a leader of the Free Officers Movement, agreed to allow the United Nations Emergency Force to establish itself in the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip, causing the expulsion of all guerrilla or " fedayeen " forces there — including Arafat.

They set up roadblocks, publicly humiliated Jordanian police forces, molested women and levied illegal taxes — all of which Arafat either condoned or ignored.

Though he had frequently been accused of and associated with terrorism, in speeches on 13 and 14 December Arafat accepted UN Security Council Resolution 242, Israel's right " to exist in peace and security " and repudiated ' terrorism in all its forms, including state terrorism '.

Due partly to his own politics ( Barak was from the leftist Labor Party, whereas Netanyahu was from the rightist Likud Party ) and partly due to insistence for compromise by President Clinton, Barak offered Arafat a Palestinian state in 73 % of the West Bank and all of the Gaza Strip.

The head of the investigation stated that " although the money for the portfolio came from public funds like Palestinian taxes, virtually none of it was used for the Palestinian people ; it was all controlled by Arafat.

In September 2005 an Israeli AIDS expert claimed that Arafat bore all the symptoms of AIDS based on obtained medical records.

Then when Yasser Arafat took on that role in September 1970, al-Yehiyeh became chief-of-staff of all Palestinian forces.

* The success of the Intifada gave Arafat and his followers the confidence they needed to moderate their political programme: At the meeting of the Palestine National Council in Algiers in mid-November 1988, Arafat won a majority for the historic decision to recognise Israel's legitimacy ; to accept all the relevant UN resolutions going back to 29 November 1947 ; and to adopt the principle of a two-state solution.

The Oslo Accords of 1993 between the later assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat had provided that agreement should be reached on all outstanding issues between the Palestinians and Israeli sides – the so-called final status settlement – within five years of the implementation of Palestinian autonomy.

Ehud Barak stated that he offered Arafat an eventual 91 % of the West Bank, and all of the Gaza Strip, with some Palestinian control over Eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods as a capital of the new Palestinian state ; in addition, all refugees could apply for compensation of property from an international fund to which Israel would contribute along with other countries.

" Levin argues that both the Israelis and the Americans were naive in expecting that Arafat would agree to give up the idea of a literal " right of return " for all Palestinians into Israel proper no matter how many 1948 refugees or how much monetary compensation Israel offered to allow.

Over the years Nikita Khrushchev, Soong May-ling ( Madame Chiang Kai-shek ), Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi, Muhammad Ali, Charles de Gaulle, Robert Redford, Boris Yeltsin, Elizabeth Taylor, Nelson Mandela, Yasser Arafat, and the Dalai Lama and Angelina Jolie have all spoken at the club.

Al-Kurdi, Arafat's personal physician for 18 years, said " I would usually be summoned to attend to Arafat immediately, even when all he had was a simple cold ... But when his medical situation was really deteriorating, they chose not to call me at all.

In September 2005, based on obtained Arafat records, an Israeli AIDS expert claimed that Arafat bore all the symptoms of AIDS, while The New York Times claimed it was highly unlikely that Arafat died from AIDS.

The aircraft was found by the Libyan Air Force almost 12 hours after the crash, where it was confirmed the three crew were killed, and all ten passengers, including Arafat, survived.

Rosenberg also stated that Palestinians mourning the death of Yasser Arafat were " stinking animals " upon whom the Israelis " ought to drop the bomb right there, kill ' em all right now ..." He was fired from the Don Imus show after making crude remarks about Australian singer Kylie Minogue's breast cancer diagnosis.

Abu Daoud, who lived with his wife on a pension provided by the Palestinian Authority, has said that “ the Munich operation had the endorsement of Arafat ,” although Arafat was not involved in conceiving or implementing the attack.

Shortly after Arafat left the meeting, Orabi was thrown out the window of a three-story building and Syrian police loyal to Hafez al-Assad ( Assad and Orabi were " close friends ") suspected Arafat was involved in the incident.

Israel and the US have alleged also that Arafat was involved in the 1973 Khartoum diplomatic assassinations, in which five diplomats and five others were killed.

The only conspiracy theories about Yasser Arafat allegedly being murdered have been made by a few Palestinian figures, and have involved alleged poisoning that was supposed to have been on the orders of Israeli officials.

* The European Union anti-fraud office ( OLAF ) is studying documents suggesting that Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority diverted tens of millions of dollars in EU funds to organizations involved in terrorism.

Ostrovsky also discusses how Mossad was involved in trafficking heroin as a source of raising funds for operations that were outside government regulation. Ostrovsky also discusses how Mossad assasinated Khadir, a PLO diplomat who was sent by Arafat to start peace negotiations with the Israeli government to prevent an invasion of Lebanon.

In his autobiography, Abu Daoud writes that Arafat saw the team off on the mission with the words “ God protect you .”

Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini (‎; 24 August 192911 November 2004 ), popularly known as Yasser Arafat () or by his kunya Abu Ammar (, ) was a Palestinian leader.

During the early 1950s, Arafat adopted the name Yasser, and in the early years of Arafat's guerrilla career, he assumed the nom de guerre of Abu Ammar.

Arafat had met Abu Iyad while attending Cairo University and Abu Jihad in Gaza.

Abu Iyad traveled with Arafat to Kuwait in late 1960 ; Abu Jihad, also working as a teacher, had already been living there since 1959.

After settling in Kuwait, Abu Iyad helped Arafat obtain a temporary job as a schoolteacher.

Arafat and his top aide Abu Jihad were detained in Syria when a pro-Syrian Palestinian leader, Yusef Urabi was murdered.

Assad appointed a panel, which found Arafat and Abu Jihad guilty of the murder.

Arafat and Abu Jihad meet Gamal Abdel Nasser upon arrival in Cairo to attend first emergency Arab League summit, 1970

Arafat and a number of his forces, including two high-ranking commanders, Abu Iyad and Abu Jihad, were forced into the northern corner of Jordan.

According to Abu Daoud's 1999 book, " Arafat was briefed on plans for the Munich hostage-taking.

Arafat and Abu Jihad blamed themselves for not successfully organizing a rescue effort.

Mass rioting broke-out and within weeks and partly upon consistent requests by Abu Jihad, Arafat attempted to direct the uprising, which lasted until 1992 – 93.

Arafat considered Abu Jihad a PLO counterweight to local Palestinian leadership, and led a funeral procession for him in Damascus.

Arafat's personal doctor Ashraf al-Kurdi and aide Bassam Abu Sharif maintained that Arafat was poisoned, possibly by thallium.

The only group that waged uninterrupted attrition against Arafat was the Fatah Revolutionary Council led by maverick hardliner Sabri al-Banna ( better known as Abu Nidal ), who was viewed by other Palestinian organizations as not so much a guerrilla as a pure criminal with no higher goal than deposing the moderates at the head of the PLO.

The first step on the road map was the appointment of the first-ever Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas ( also known as Abu Mazen ,) by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

After the resignation of Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas ( Abu Mazen ) on September 6, 2003, Palestinian Authority president Yasser Arafat nominated Qurei to fill the post.

Salah Mesbah Khalaf (), also known as Abu Iyad () ( born 1933 – January 14, 1991 ) was deputy chief and head of intelligence for the Palestine Liberation Organization, and the second most senior official of Fatah after Yasser Arafat.