Yasir Arafat Speech to the United Nations

                                  Nov. 13, 1974

                                 An Introduction

     Yasir Arafat was elected chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization

during a meeting of the Executive Committee of the 5th Palestine National

Congress in February, 1969, in Cairo, Egypt. At the same meeting, the PNC

Executive endorsed the Palestine National Charter.

     Born in Jerusalem in 1929, he studied in Cairo and received an engineering

degree at King Fuad University. In 1956, he organized Al-Fatah (reverse acronym

for Harakat al-Tahrir al-Filastin: `Movement for the Liberation of Palestine.'

     Until he was elected to head the PLO, he was known only as Abu Amar, (`The

Father of Amar'). This `nom de guerre' is taken from the name of `Amar ibn

Yasir' (`Amar the son of Yasir') who was a companion of the Moslem Prophet

Mohammad and an admired fighter in Islamic teaching.

    Arafat's appearance at the United Nations was denounced by Israel and the

United States, Israel's primary military supplier and military ally.

    But Arafat's message to the United Nation's was one of peace and

compromise, urging the world body to recognize the rights of the Palestinians

to a homeland, and to acknowledge their role in the worldwide fight for

freedom.

    Arafat noted the changes in the United Nations that made it more of a

representative world body, compared to the years after its creation when it was

dominated by the Western and colonial powers who dictated terms that placed

Palestine on its current course of occupation and forced the Palestinians into

exile as refugees.

    But, Yasir Arafat also noted the changes in the strength of the Palestinian

freedom movement.

    And he forewarned the member nations that there can be no peace in the

Middle East without the Palestinians. Arafat is unanimously honored by the

Palestinians as a freedom fighter, and a valiant hero and advocate for peace

and justice in Palestine.

    The speech is divided (by the Biladi author) into four parts for ease of

study. (The major parts of the speech is intact, although some minor parts have

been excluded only for the sake of convenience and the context is not altered.)