Pateira

In Cairo, on February 4, 1969, Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini (1929 - 2004), popularly known as Yasser Arafat, is appointed Palestine Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress.  He was leader of the secular Fatah political party, which he founded in 1959.

Originally opposed to Israel's existence, he modified his position in 1988 when he accepted UN Security Council Resolution 242.

The PLO was founded by the Arab League in May 1964, under the chairmanship of Ahmad Shuqeiri, a Palestinian with long experience as an Arab diplomat. The original PLO Charter declared the establishment of Israel "illegal, null and void" and outlined goals to "liberate the homeland" via armed struggle.  Palestinian statehood was not mentioned, although in 1974 the PLO adopted the idea of an independent state between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea. More recently, the PLO officially adopted a two-state solution, with Israel and Palestine living side by side contingent on specific terms such as making East Jerusalem capital of the Palestinian state and giving Palestinians right of return.