Yasser Arafat

NEW YORK – SEPT 22: Arafat on September 22, 1999 in New York. Anthony Correia/Bigstock.com

Birth Name: Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini

Date of Birth: 4/24 August, 1929

Place of Birth: Cairo, Kingdom of Egypt (now Egypt)

Date of Death: 11 November, 2004

Place of Death: Clamart, Hauts-de-Seine, France

Ethnicity: Arab [Palestinian, Egyptian]

Yasser Arafat, also known as Yassir Arafat and “Abu Ammar,” was a Palestinian politician and militant. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), from 4 February, 1969 to 29 October, 2004, and the 1st President of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), from 5 July, 1994 to 11 November, 2004, his death. He was an Arab nationalist, a socialist, and a leader and founding member of the paramilitary organization Fatah. Initially, he sought Israel’s replacement with an Arab-led state, and launched attacks on Israeli targets; he also fought against the Jordanian government, and assisted the Lebanese National Movement in the Lebanese Civil War. He shifted his approach to negotiations in the 1980s, acknowledging Israel’s right to exist in 1988 and endorsing a two-state solution; while support for more militant Palestinian organizations grew among the population.

Yasser was born in Cairo, Egypt, the son of Zahwa Abul Saud and Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini, a textile merchant. His father was from Gaza City. His mother was from Jerusalem, from the Mughrabi Quarter of the Old City. His paternal grandmother was Egyptian. His brother was physician Fathi Arafat, who founded the Palestine Red Crescent Society. Yasser was raised mostly in Cairo, with a few years in Jerusalem. He attended the University of King Fuad I in Giza. He joined the militant Arab nationalist movement in 1948, and was president of the General Union of Palestinian Students in Cairo in the 1950s.

Yasser was married to Suha Arafat (born Suha Daoud Tawil), until his death, with whom he had a daughter. Suha was born in Jerusalem, to a Catholic family, and converted to Sunni Islam.

Yasser’s paternal grandfather was named Dawood al-Qudwa al-Husseini.

Yasser’s maternal grandfather was named Khalil Abul Saud.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1994, with Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin. “The Peacemakers” won Time Magazine’s Person of the Year for 1993. Yasser was one of four persons chosen to represent that title, along with F. W. de Klerk, Nelson Mandela, and Rabin.

Source: Genealogy of Yasser Arafat – https://www.geni.com