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Obituary: Yasser Arafat
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who dominated his people's struggle for 40 years, has died aged 75 in a French hospital where he was being treated.

The Israeli government, which branded him a terrorist, has suggested his death could be a turning point for peace in the Middle East.

His body will go to Cairo for a funeral attended by Arab and other leaders before burial in Ramallah on Saturday.

People wept openly and the Palestinian Authority declared 40 days of mourning.

Mr Arafat died of multiple organ failure at 0330 (0230 GMT) on Thursday - a "black day" in Palestinian history, in the words of Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat.

The Palestine Liberation Organisation's executive committee has unanimously elected Mahmoud Abbas as its leader as the late Mr Arafat's many powers are divided among his officials.
Flags have been flying at half mast outside the late Palestinian leader's compound in Ramallah, set to be his last resting place.

People have been wearing chequered headscarves - Mr Arafat's trademark - and in the Gaza Strip, thousands took to the streets as mosque loudspeakers played quotes from the late leader.
"Our father is dead," construction worker Fathi Abu Adnan told Reuters news agency in Gaza City as mourners let off volleys of bullets into the air.

Israel has sealed off the West Bank as a security precaution and strengthened security at Jewish settlements.

'Significant moment'

French President Jacques Chirac paid tribute to "a man of courage and conviction who for 40 years incarnated the Palestinians' fight for recognition of their national rights".

For decades Yasser Arafat was the embodiment of the Palestinian cause.

To his supporters he was the only man capable of keeping Palestinian hopes alive and at the forefront of global consciousness.
To critics he was an inveterate terrorist who failed his people.

He was in equal measures national treasure and national liability for many Palestinians. While raising their hopes of independence he was also seen by some as one of the impediments to Palestinian democracy and civil society.

Early radicalism

Yasser Arafat was born Muhammad Abdul Rahman Abdul Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini on 24 August 1929 in the Egyptian capital, Cairo. His father, a Palestinian merchant living in Egypt, died during the first Arab-Israeli war 20 years later.
Arafat's youth is surrounded by uncertainty.

He claimed to have been born in Jerusalem but his Egyptian accent always revealed his Cairo upbringing.
The young Arafat is thought to have adopted the name Yasser - and its epithet "Abu Ammar" - while studying at university in Egypt, to honour an Arab victim of the British mandate in Palestine.
From the beginning, Arafat was a powerful grassroots activist.

Initially, he was drawn towards Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, but soon became wedded to the idea of armed struggle to reverse what the Palestinians call the 1948 Catastrophe.

That was when the state of Israel was established on more than 70% of Palestine, which had been under British rule.

Salvaged rifles

At some point after 1948, Arafat secretly founded Fatah, the Movement for the Liberation of Palestine, with a few like-minded diaspora Palestinians, to achieve that reversal.

Arafat later spoke proudly of these days, when he salvaged World War II rifles from the Egyptian desert to arm his organisation.

Arafat's style was often theatrical. In 1953 he sent Egypt's first post-revolution leader, General Muhammad Neguib, a three word petition: "Don't forget Palestine."
The words were said to have been written in Arafat's own blood.
Arafat's CV said that in 1956 he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Egyptian army and he served during the Suez crisis and the Arab-Israeli war which followed.

The expertise which Arafat gained in explosives and demolition prepared him for his role as the head of Fatah's military wing, al-Asifa - the Storm - which started operations in 1965.

Al-Asifa's job was to launch guerrilla attacks against Israel, mainly from Jordan, Lebanon and Gaza which was then under Egyptian control.

After Israel's 1967 crushing defeat of the Arab armies and its capture of the West Bank and Gaza, Fatah was the only credible force left fighting Israel. Arafat's reputation was enhanced in 1968 with his courageous defence of the Jordanian town of Karameh against superior Israeli forces.
Karameh - which means "dignity" in Arabic - caused a surge of optimism among Palestinians and raised the banner of Palestinian national liberation in contrast to the failure of the Arab regimes to challenge Israel.

Elected PLO chairman

In 1969, Arafat was voted chairman of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), which had been formed four years earlier by the Arab League.

Initially based in Jordan, PLO fighters were driven out by King Hussein in September 1970 - later dubbed Black September. Arafat led them to the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

In subsequent years, guerrillas from various Palestinian factions hit the headlines with hijackings, bombings and assassinations, most notably the kidnapping and killing of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Arafat refused to discuss such attacks, though he has always denounced terrorism as a tactic. Whether or not he was personally involved remains a matter of conjecture.