Labels:text | human face | man | person | human beard OCR: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ Arafat, Yasir Yasir Arafat Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) since 1968, Yasir Arafat survived assassination attempts, an air crash in the Libyan desert, and plots to unseat him by other Arab factions. His dedication to the Palestinian cause made him the best-known Arab leader who was not a head of state. In 1974 Arafat became the first leader of a national liberation movement to address the United Nations General Assembly. He suffered a setback in 1982 when Israel's invasion of south Lebanon forced him to move the PLO's headquarters from there to Tunis. In the 1980s he distanced himself from extremist Arab groups by seeking a Palestinian homeland through negotiation, renunciation of terrorism, and recognition of Israel. In 1993 Arafat achieved the crowning Yasir Arafat, Palestinian leader, success of his career when the Israeli-PLO Declaration of Principles was signed at the 1929 - White House. This provided for Palestinian self-rule in Gaza and the West Bank, thus enabling Arafat to enter Gaza for the first time in 25 years. CHRONOLOGY