It is nowadays no surprise if somebody who is as far away from peace as a cat from veganism is awarded Nobel peace prize, yet among many controversial figures Arafat is possibly one of the most surprising or so one should thought. A terrorist, a soldier, a founder of terrorist organization, a wannabe destroyer of two countries and almost successful destroyer of the third one. That is no record of pacifist for sure. Nevertheless it is interesting and significant person for the history of Middle East in general and Israel (and Jordan and Lebanon) in particular.
Born in Cairo in 1929 he was a son of Egyptian father and Palestinian mother. All his youth is connected to Egypt. His engineering studies on Cairo university were for some time suspended when - radicalized at the university - he took part along Muslim Brotherhood in the war of 1948 trying to prevent establishing of Israel. One thing has to be admitted - he read a lot and made himself acquainted with lots of political literature, Zionist included.
After 1956 war against Israel (in which he also took part, however marginally), and after being refused Canadian or Saudi visa he went to Kuwait and that is where he started organizing his Fatah party dedicated to organizing Palestinian state through fighting Israel. He was - as will be shown - not really dedicated to the first cause but deeply devoted to the second. Later he left for Syria, where (with the backing of Arab League) he created Palestinian Liberation Organization in 1964. And this is the first interesting moment I want to describe as you may read about Arafat on your own, but few moments are so significant in view of today's situation that they need to be reexamined.
So, the year is 1964. In 1947 Jews accepted the UN proposed division, the Arab refused it. In 1948, 24 hours after Israel declared her independence 6 Arab armies attacked her. In one of them young Arafat was fighting. In 1964 Gaza still belonged to Egypt and housed training camps for fedayeens who attacked Israel, West Bank of Jordan was still in Jordan, Jerusalem, which was to be under international control was illegally occupied by Jordan and Golan Heights were in Syria and were constantly used to shell Jewish villages with fire. All the territories that today many so called politic activists consider "occupied" were not in Israeli borders. So what did Arafat want to liberate and from whom? Did he want to liberate Gaza from Egypt and create Palestinian state? No. Did he want to establish Palestinian state in parts of southern Lebanon or Syria where many Arabs who previously lived in Israel were living now? No. Did he want to liberate Jerusalem from Jordan? No. Did he want to liberate Palestinian refugees from refugee camps they were sent to in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt alike? No. He wanted to liberate Palestine by destroying Israel (much smaller then), murdering Jews and possibly giving the territory to neighboring countries as he was still under the strong influence of pan-Arab-ism. Therefore those who, after 1967, claimed PLO was a response to some occupation of land by Israel obviously miss the significance of those 3 years before what they call occupation took place but the movement created by Arafat, that later claimed it is against "occupation" was already acting towards destroying Israel.
Let me know please if the topic of Arafat and discrepancies of what he (and many activists today) claimed and continue to claim and what really happened is of interest to you and should I continue with it. In the meantime here is the picture of Hurva synagogue blown up by Jordanian forces in 1949 when the Jordanian occupation of Jerusalem started and no Jews (no matter what passport they held) could enter this holy city.
