Who is Yasir Arafat from From Beirut to Jerusalem and what is their importance?

Yasir Arafat becomes the symbol of the Palestinian cause. Arafat is born in 1929 in either Egypt or Gaza. He tells people both so nobody ever knows for sure which one. He is named Mohammed but known as Yasir. When his mother dies, he is four and is sent to live with a relative in Jerusalem, where he grows up. He is educated at Cairo University and trained as a civil engineer and is always interested and active in Palestinian nationalist causes. After the end of the 1967 war, Arafat gains control of the PLO and turns it into an umbrella organization for different Palestinian groups. He is successful at holding it together over the years.