Remembering Palestine’s Yasser Arafat On His Birth Anniversary

Yasser Arafat, the controversial Palestinian leader, would have turned 89 today.

A Palestinian student walks past a mural depicting late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Gaza City (Photo : Reuters)

• Yasser Arafat looms large over the history of Palestine’s political struggle, having served as Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and President of the Palestinian National Authority (PNO).
• His legacy, however, remains vigorously disputed. Arafat’s supporters see him as a devoted martyr to the Palestinian cause while his detractors point to the allegations of corruption and violence that surrounded his regime.
• India, as a long-time supporter of Palestine, hosted Arafat in November 1997 and signed an MoU for bilateral cooperation in trade, commerce, industry, science and technology, and culture.

(This story was first published on 24 August 2015. It is being reposted from The Quint’s archives to mark Yasser Arafat’s birth anniversary.)