ei: ARAFAT, Yasser -- President of Palestine

On 15 November 1988, Yasser Arafat declared independence and the establishment of an independent State of Palestine. In 1993 he signed the Declaration of Principles at the White House and in 1994, after years of exile he returned back to Palestine, where he was elected president of the Palestinian Authority. The Oslo Accords, which brought him back, were ultimately to undermine his status, as unabated Israeli colonization of the occupied territories and punishing closures of towns soured what meager benefits Palestinians experienced from the handover of population areas (but little other land) by Israel. Blamed for the failure of the 2000 Camp David talks

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and his wife Suha hold hands prior to Arafat's departure from his compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah in this file picture released by the Palestinian Authority Friday Oct. 29, 2004.

and for the inevitable and predictable outbreak of the second intifada, Israel has invested much public relations efforts in demonising Arafat to divert attention from its bad faith negotiations during the Oslo process.

On 29 October 2004, the 75-year-old Arafat was flown from his compound in Ramallah to France to a military hospital in order to receive treatment for a grave illness. In a 9 November press conference in Paris, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Sha'ath reported on Arafat's condition, saying he had been in a coma since 3 November and had slipped deeper into the coma during the night. He quashed rumours of poisoning or cancer, saying that the terrible conditions during the three years of his office arrest in Ramallah had seriously affected his digestive system, preventing him from absorbing nutrition. On 10 November, media outlets began to report that Arafat's organs were progressively failing. On 11 November 2004 he died in a hospital in France. On November 12 he was laid to rest in Ramallah's Muqata'a, entombed in earth from the al-Haram al-Shareef compound in Jerusalem until such a time he can be moved to the Palestinian capital.

The Beyond Arafat section below tracks developments and reactions.

In Memorium

Yasser Arafat, 1929-2004, The Electronic Intifada (10 November 2004)

Photostory: Ramallah reacts to news of Arafat's death, Maureen Clare Murphy (11 November 2004)

Palestinians reach out to their leader for a final embrace, Jonathan Cook (13 November 2004)

Palestine Greater Than Arafat, Sam Bahour (11 November 2004)

UN Committee for Palestinian rights deeply saddened by death of Arafat, UNGA (11 November 2004)

Arafat to be recalled for leading Palestinians to accept principle of coexistence with Israel -- Annan, UN News (11 November 2004)

Beyond Arafat

After Arafat: refracted reflections, Laurie King-Irani (16 November 2004)

Palestinians embracing post-Arafat era, Khalid Amayreh (11 November 2004)

Blaming Arafat for Israel's torpedoing of Oslo, Nigel Parry (11 November 2004)

Interview with author Clayton Swisher: Challenging Camp David mythology, four years on (10 November 2004)

Palestinians to continue struggle, Khalid Amayreh (9 November 2004)

The End of the Arafat Era, Am Johal (8 November 2004)