0.00 — 1.30

The opening sequences sum up the nature of Yasser Arafat very neatly, with images showing his combination of world statesman and gun carrying revolutionary. The rather obvious comment that he is a complex character is one worth stressing with students. For many students the concept of mixed emotions and mixed motives is quite a challenging concept.

1.30 — 7.50

The programme then goes on to weave a story which combines the events in Palestine from 1948 onwards with the emergence of Arafat. There is some excellent footage of the descendants of Palestinian Arabs describing their experience (and their parents’ experiences) of being forced to leave their lands in Palestine by Israeli soldiers. The general chaos and confusion of the time is explained, including the aftermath of World War 2 and the setting up of the state of Israel.

The programme then goes on to describe the life of the Palestinians made homeless in the events of 1948 and their life as refugees in camps in neighbouring Arab countries. It also describes the growing bitterness among the Palestinians, and the way in which the hardships they suffered gave rise to revolutionary groups like Fataq, and why young idealists like Yasser Arafat joined them, rising to lead the PLO in the mid-1960s. The programme then charts the guerrilla campaign which, supported by some of the Arab states, helped to trigger the 1967 Six Day War between Israel and her Arab neighbours.

7.50 — 15.26

The next section of the programme charts Israel’s devastating (for the Arabs) successes in the 1967 war and the territorial consequences of Israel’s victories. The programme then describes Arafat’s shift to guerrilla or terrorist tactics against targets in Israel or with Israeli connections. The camps from which these attacks were launched worried King Hussein of Jordan, however, and he ejected the PLO fighters in 1970. The programme then charts the next phase of the PLO’s struggle, now based in Lebanon. The PLO’s role in making Lebanon’s civil war worse is examined, and then Israel’s invasion of Southern Lebanon is also tackled. This section concludes with what appears to be the end of Arafat’s career as a political force as the PLO is forced to withdraw to North Africa.

15.25 — end

This impression is quickly dispelled, and this final section describes Arafat’s return to prominence. This time it was the Intifada, the Palestinian civilian uprising in the Israeli occupied territories, which created the momentum and propelled Arafat back to prominence. The programme describes the process by which Arafat took to the world stage in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He continues to be a pivotal figure as President of the Palestinian Authority set up in the 1993 Peace Accord negotiated in Oslo but signed in Washington. The programme concludes with an assessment of the positions occupied by Arafat’s critics and supporters, concluding that his greatest achievement was to keep the Palestinian identity alive and to keep the Palestine question on the world political stage.