Education: Engineering degree from King Fuad University, Cairo-Egypt. In 1956 he joined the reserve officers of the Egyptian Army and fought against the tri-partite aggression on Egypt. In 1953-1968 he joined early in his youth, the Palestine National Movement as represented by the League of Palestinian Students 1944, and chaired it later on. In 1968 he formed “Fateh” movement together with other brothers in the fifties and was declared its spokesman. In 1973 he became the Commander in Chief of the forces of the Palestinian Revolution. In 1974 he addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York. In 1979: Joliet Curie Gold Medal-World Peace Council.
- 1981: Honorary Ph.D. from Jamaat Islamiya in Haidar Abad, India.
- 1982: Led the heroic battle against the invasion of Lebanon and the battle of steadfastness during the siege of Beirut by the Israeli forces.
- Nov. 1984 & April 1987: Re-elected Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization by the 17th, 18th and the 19th sessions of the Palestine National Council
- 13 Sept. 1988: Addressed the Socialist Group of the European Parliament
- 15 Nov. 1988: Announced the Declaration of Independence and the establishment of an independent Palestinian State.
- 13 Dec. 1988: Addressed the UNGA, which convened in Geneva to hear him because the then US Secretary of State denied Chairman Arafat an entry Visa to the US to address the UNGA in New York. Addressed the Security Council in Geneva on February & May 1990 for the same reason.
- 13-14 Dec. 1989: Launched the Palestinian peace initiative for establishing peace in the Middle East. Following that, on 14 Dec. 1988, the US Administration led by President Reagan decided to open a substantial dialogue with the PLO in Tunis.
- 30 March 1989: Chosen President of the State of Palestine by Central Council of the PLO and elected as such by the Palestine National Council directly on 15 Nov. 1988.
- 13 Sep. 1993: Launched and directed the policy of “Peace of the Braves” that culminated in the signing of the Palestinian Israeli Declaration of Principles at the White House, Washington.
- 12 Oct. 1993: Elected by the Central Council of the PLO to be the President of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).
- 31 Oct. 1993: President of Palestine Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction (PECDAR).
- July 1994: Awarded Felix Houphouet Boigny peace prize.
- Oct. 1994: Received Laureate Nobel Peace Prize.
- Nov. 1994: Awarded Prince of Sturias Prize.
- 20 Jan. 1996: Elected as President of the PNA in general election.
- 31 Aug. 1999: Awarded an Honorary Ph.D. in Business Administration from the Masstricht University of Holland.
- President Arafat is Vice – Chairman of NAM and the permanent Vice-Chairman of the Organization of Islamic Conference.

The Major Stations in the President Life:

The life of president Yaser Arafat, the news are contrasting regarding his health condition, has been formidably connected with the history of the Palestinian national movement:

- August 4, 1929: Arafat, whose real original name, Muhammad Abdulraoof Arafat Al- Qedwa Al-Husini, was born in Jerusalem (according to his confirmation) and in Cairo (according to the authors of his bibliography) for a father from Khan Yunis who was working as a merchant and a mother who descents from one of the Jerusalemite families.
- 1948: He cut off his studies in Gaza in order to participate in the first Arab-Israeli war in Palestine.
- 1950-1956: He continued his engineering studies at Cairo University where he headed the Palestine Student Union.
- 1957: He worked as an engineer in Kuwait, where he established Fatah movement along side Khalil Al-Wazir (Abu Jihad) and Salah Khalaf (Abu Iyad).
- May 28, 1964: The establishment of the Palestinian Liberation Organization headed by Ahmad A-Shuqiri during the first convention of the Palestinian National Council in Jerusalem.
- December 31, 1964: Fatah movement executed the first military operation in the Israeli territories by trying to blast a water station. Arafat had personally handed in a statement claiming responsibility for the operation to the Lebanese A-Nahar newspaper.
- 1967: Following the defeat of June War, Arafat had concluded two years of discrete resistance during which he adopted his revolutionary label "Abu A`mmar". In July, he traveled secretly to the occupied West Bank and spent there four months in organizing the cells of Fatah movement.
- February 4, 1969: Arafat was elected as the head of the Executive Committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization that had adopted in June 1986 the national charter declaring on the "armed resistance" as the sole mean to liberate Palestine.
- September 1970: Following the battles of September during which thousands of Palestinians were killed in confrontations with the Jordanian army, Arafat moved to Beirut with his troops that were expelled from Jordan.
- October 26, 1974: The Arab Summit in Rabat declares on the Palestinian Liberation Organization as "the legitimate and sole representative" of the Palestinian people.
- November 13, 1974: Arafat speaks for the first time in front of the UN General Assembly in NY saying " I came holding an olive branch in one hand and my fighter rifle for freedom in the other, do not let the olive branch drop off my hand".
- June 1982: Israel invades Lebanon during "the Galilee Peace" operation in order to hit the infrastructure of the Palestinian Liberation Organization that supported during the Lebanese civil war the forces hostile to the Christian right.
?- August 30, 1982: The Palestinian fighters withdrew from Beirut and Arafat with the entire Palestinian leadership depart to Tunis.
- June 24, 1983: Syria expels Yaser Arafat.
- December 20, 1983: Arafat leaves Tripoli north to Lebanon after separated unites from Fatah and allies to Syria besieged him.
- October first 1985: Arafat survives from an Israeli strike on his headquarter in Tunis. - December 7, 1987: The eruption of the first Palestinian Intifada at the occupied territories.
- April 16, 1988: An Israeli armed group assassinated Abu Jihad, Arafat assistant, in Tunis. - November 15, 1988: The Palestinian National Council recognizes Israel during a session in Algiers by accepting the Security Council resolution 242, and symbolically declares on the independent Palestinian state headed by president Arafat.
- December 1988: Arafat announces his condemnation of terror, his recognition of Israel and called on the Israelis for peace.
- January 25, 1991: The assassination of Abu Iyad, the second personnel in the PLO, by the bullets of one of his guards.
- October 1991: After Yitzhak Shamir right government rejection that Palestinians from the PLO participate in the negotiations, a Palestinian delegation from the occupied territories joined the Madrid Peace conference that marked the beginning of the peace process in the Middle East.
- January 1992: Arafat (63) married Suha Tawil (29) a Palestinian decedent from Ramallah. In 1995, they have a born baby girl named Zahwa.
- April 1992: Arafat survives from an accident of a plane crash at the Libyan desert.
- September 13, 1993: A historic hand shake between Arafat and the Israeli Labor PM, Yitzhak Rabin, in Washington before signing the "Declaration of Principles for Self-Rule" that had been secretly negotiated about in Oslo.
- May 4, 1994: Arafat signed with Rabin in Cairo the agreement on the implementation of the autonomy in Gaza and Jericho.
- July 1, 1994: Arafat returned to the Palestinian territories after 27 year of exile then he chose Gaza as the headquarter of his commandment.
- September 28, 1995: Signing the agreement of expanding the autonomy to the West Bank in Washington.
- January 20, 1996: Arafat was elected as the head of the Palestinian Authority through the first general election issued in the Palestinian territories.
- September 5, 1999: Arafat signed an agreement with the Israeli Labor PM, Ehud Barak, at Sharm A-Sheikh (Egypt), that was supposed to pave the road to the final negotiations.
- July 25, 2000: The failure of Camp David Summit (the USA) between Arafat and Barak.
- September 28, 2000: A visit of the leader of the right opposition, Areal Sharon, to Al-Aqsa mosque marks the first flame of the Palestinian Intifada.
- December 3, 2001: Following a series of explosion operations, Israel imposes a siege on Arafat in Ramallah and bans his departure from there.
- March 29, 2002: In wake of a new explosion operation that resulted in killing almost 30 people in Haifa on the eve of the Jewish Passover holiday, the Israeli army launched the widest operation in the West Bank since 1967 and destroyed the largest portion of Arafat headquarter in Ramallah where the president was subjected to a siege until the eve of the 1st and 2nd of May.
- June 24, 2002: The American president, George Bush, stipulated the establishment of the independent Palestinian state with changing the Palestinian leadership or in other words with the departure of Arafat.
- February 14, 2003: Under massive international pressures, especially from the USA and the EU side, Arafat agreed on inventing the position of a Prime Minister.
- April 30, 2003: This position was assumed by Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) whose name was suggested by Arafat to the PLO Executive Committee Members.
- September 6, 2003: Mahmud Abbas resigned after four months of confrontations with Arafat, who proposed on the next day to the PLC spokesperson, Ahmad Qurei`, to form the government.
- September 11, 2003: The Israeli authorities ratified the principal of "getting rid" of Arafat at a date to be set up by Israel. The Palestinian leader responded, "no one will expel me" from the occupied territories.
- April 2, 2004: The Israeli PM, Areal Sharon, asserts that there is no guarantee for the life of Arafat and that he does not rule out liquidating him. He also asserts that Arafat will not be allowed to come back to the Palestinian territories in case he will leave it. - July 17, 2004: Arafat avoids a ministerial crisis by Qurie` agreeing on maintaining his position after ten days of resignation to protest against the security chaos that intensified in the Palestinian territories.
- October 25/26, 2004: The PA denies the news on deterioration in president Arafat (75 years old) health condition, and ruled out evacuating him to the hospital accusing Israel of spreading rumors on his health condition. Sources at the PA presidency said he had undergone a radioscopy operation that revealed nothing abnormal.
- October 27, 2004: A sudden deterioration in president Arafat health condition and a Palestinian official says he is in a critical condition.
- October 29, 2004: Transporting Arafat from Ramallah to a hospital in Paris to issue medical tests.
- October 4, 2004: Arafat enters the intensive care department in the Parisian hospital where he is treated after he looses his conscience several times.
- November 11, 2004: Arafat died at the Parisian hospital.
- November 12, 2004: Burried at the Presidential Headquarter (Muqata') in Ramallah.