Yāsir ʿArafāt (Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Raʾūf ʿArafāt al-Qudwa), also known as Abū ʿAmmār (1929-2004), was the iconic figure of the Palestinian nationalist movement from 1969 until his death. He was a founder of the militant Fatḥ movement (1959) and was elected president of the Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee (PLOEC) in 1969, an office he held for the rest of his life. He came to endorse a two-state solution and in 1994 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. His father, a merchant, belonged to a family of