Yasser Arafat Detail

About Yasser Arafat Detail

See Arafat main entry. He was born Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al Qudwa al Husseini. Arafat founded Fatah in 1959 and became chairman of the PLO in 1969. His handshake with Rabin on the White House lawn in 1993 was a historic moment. Arafat received the Nobel Peace Prize alongside Rabin and Peres. He died in a French hospital in 2004. The cause of death was never definitively explained, with speculation ranging from poisoning to infection. His widow Suha received a 22 million dollar settlement from the Palestinian Authority. Arafat remains the symbol of Palestinian nationalism.