Palestinians in Ramallah in the West Bank marked the 17th anniversary of the death of late president Yasser Arafat, on Thursday 11 November.

On November 11, 2004, Arafat, also known as Abu Ammar, died at a French hospital. He had been flown there after suffering from a sudden illness after an Israeli military siege of the presidential headquarters in Ramallah.

He was a founder member of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) in the 1950s and was elected chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in February 1969.

After decades of conflict, Yasser Arafat and the former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin signed the Oslo Declaration of Principles on September 13, 1993, in the White House. That allowed Arafat and the PLO to return to Palestine after living in exile since 1948.

On January 20, 1996, Yasser Arafat was elected president of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in general elections and began the process of building the foundations of a Palestinian state.

The soundbite in the edit is Laila Ghannam, Governor of Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governorate, speaking in Arabic.

RESTRICTION SUMMARY: Ramallah- 11 November 2021. Palestinians take part in a ceremony to mark the 17th anniversary of death of late president Yasser Arafat, in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

0.1 SOUNDBITE (in Arabic) Laila Ghannam, Governor of Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governorate.

STORYLINE:
The 17th anniversary for the passing of President Yasser Arafat (Abu Ammar) coincides on Thursday.

On November 11, 2004, Arafat died at a French hospital where he was flown to after suffering from a sudden illness following a tight and inhuman Israeli military siege of the presidential headquarters in Ramallah.

The late president was born in Jerusalem on August 4, 1929 as "Muhammad Yasser" Abdul Ra‘ouf Daoud Suleiman Arafat al-Kidwa al-Husseini. He was educated in Cairo and participated as a reservist officer in the Egyptian army in fighting the tripartite aggression against Egypt in 1956.

He also joined a group of Palestinian nationalists in the founding of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) in the 1950s. He was elected chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in February 1969 after Ahmad Shuqeiri and Yehya Hammoudeh.

On November 13, 1974, Abu Ammar delivered a speech on behalf of the Palestinian people to the UN General Assembly in New York, with which he concluded: “Today I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom-fighter‘s gun. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand. I repeat: do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.”


Following the Declaration of Independence in Algiers on 15 November 1988, the late leader presented at the United Nations General Assembly on 13 and 14 December of the same year a Palestinian initiative for a just peace in the Middle East. The General Assembly was moved at that time to Geneva after the United States had refused to grant Arafat a visa to reach New York. The initiative set the foundation for US President Ronald Reagan to initiate on 16 September a dialogue with the PLO in Tunis that started on 30 March 1989.

Yasser Arafat and former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin signed on September 13, 1993 in the White House the Oslo Declaration of Principles between the PLO and the Israeli government, which allowed Yasser Arafat and the PLO leadership and fighters to return to Palestine after living in exile since 1948.

On January 20, 1996, Yasser Arafat was elected president of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in general elections and since then has begun the process of building the foundations of a Palestinian state.


Footage by APAwire