Top 15 Yasser Arafat Quotes

Palestinian political leader (1929-2004) and Former President of the Palestinian National Authority (1994-2004)

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Yasser Arafat (4 August 1929 or 24 August 1929 or 14 August 1929 – 11 November 2004) was co-founder and Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) (1969–2004), President of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) (1993–2004), and co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994.

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Native Name: ياسر عرفات

Alternative Names: Yasir Arafat • Yaser Arafat • Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini • Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa • Muhammad Yassur Abd ar-Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa • Abu Ammar • Yassir Arafat

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What Kuwait did to the Palestinian people is worse than what has been done by Israel to Palestinians in the occupied territories.

Let it collapse, it will be the fault of Israel and the Americans.

This is my homeland; no one can kick me out.

They want us to pass a constitution? No problem! We'll ask Israel to provide us with one copy of theirs and we'll copy it word for word!

I swear to God, I will see [the Palestinian state], whether as a martyr or alive. Please, God, give me the honor of becoming a martyr in the fight for Jerusalem.

This child, who is grasping the stone, facing the tank, is it not the greatest message to the world when that hero becomes a martyr? We are proud of them.

Amanpour: Secretary of State Colin Powell has spoken to you, I understand. He has also spoken publicly. He called on you to rein in the violence. What do you make of that statement, and can you and will you rein in that violence? Arafat: Are you asking me while I am under complete siege? You are a wonderful journalist. You have to respect your profession.… No, you have to be accurately when you are speaking with General Yasser Arafat. Be quiet! … You are covering, with such questions, the terrorist activities of the Israeli occupation and the Israeli crimes. Take care not to make these fatal mistakes. Thank you. Bye, bye!

We will not bend or fail until the blood of every last Jew from the youngest child to the oldest elder is spilt to redeem our land!

The PLO will now concentrate on splitting Israel psychologically into two camps... We plan to eliminate the State of Israel and establish a Palestinian state. We will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion. Jews will not want to live among Arabs. I have no use for Jews. They are and remain Jews. We now need all the help we can get from you in our battle for a united Palestine under Arab rule.

The Israelis are mistaken if they think we do not have an alternative to negotiations. By Allah I swear they are wrong. The Palestinian people are prepared to sacrifice until either the last boy and the last girl raise the Palestinian flag over the walls, the churches and the mosques of Jerusalem.

Did you follow what [General [[w:Yehoshafat_Harkabi|Yehoshafat] Harkabi]] wrote? Formerly of the Israeli military intelligence service. Remember him? Did you follow what he wrote? He said that it was for the sake of the existence of Israel that we have to accept the rights of the Palestinians to have their independent state. I’m a man of history. My vision is guiding me, my clear vision. It is not by chance that the currents of peace are increasing daily inside Israel. Many of the Israelis begin to understand and discover the realities and the facts. They can’t demolish five million Palestinians. They can’t annihilate them. We are not the Red Indians.

Peace for us means the destruction of Israel. We are preparing for an all-out war, a war which will last for generations… We shall not rest until the day when we return to our home, and until we destroy Israel.

Today I come bearing an olive branch in one hand, and the freedom fighter's gun in the other. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand. I repeat, do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.

The difference between the revolutionary and the terrorist lies in the reason for which each fights. For whoever stands by a just cause and fights for the freedom and liberation of his land from the invaders, the settlers and the colonialists cannot possibly be called terrorist, otherwise the American people in their struggle for liberation from the British colonialists would have been terrorists; the European resistance against the Nazis would be terrorism, the struggle of the Asian, African and Latin American peoples would also be terrorism, and many of you who are in this Assembly hall were considered terrorists.

Those who call us terrorists wish to prevent world public opinion from discovering the truth about us and from seeing the justice on our faces. They seek to bide the terrorism and tyranny of their acts, and our own posture of self-defence.