In Memoriam

Today, on the eighty-sixth anniversary of the Allied-German armistice at Compiègne, Yasser Arafat (ياسر عرفات) born Muhammad Abd al-Rahman ar-Rauf al-Qudwah al-Husayni and also known as Abu Ammar; President of the Palestinian Authority (leader since 1993, elected to a five-year term in 1996); leader of Fatah and Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) since 1969, and co-winner of the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize died at Percy training hospital of the Armies, in Clamart, France at the age of 75.

He was a guerrilla leader, regarded as a resistance fighter or freedom fighter by Palestinians and their supporters, and as a terrorist by Israel and its supporters. There is little that I can add to the numerous comments and articles about him, but that I am sure he will continue to be as controversial in death as he was in life.