ABSTRACT
Areas of Achievement: Political leadership and the military
Contribution: Arafat was the founder of al-Fatah, a Palestinian revolutionary and sometimes terrorist organization that became the founding block of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). A controversial figure who is a freedom fighter to his own people and a terrorist to Israelis and others, he has moved the Palestinians from near obscurity in the 1960's to the forefront of the world's attention.
