Episode Details

Yasser Arafat spent forty years fighting for a Palestinian state and died without one. He led the PLO through hijackings, guerrilla warfare, the expulsion from Jordan and Lebanon, the Oslo peace process, and the Second Intifada — transforming the Palestinian cause from a refugee grievance into an international political movement while never achieving the statehood he promised his people.

This episode traces Arafat from his Cairo childhood through the founding of Fatah, the Black September crisis, the Lebanon exile, the Oslo handshake with Rabin, and the final siege in Ramallah where he died under Israeli military encirclement.

• Arafat's disputed Cairo/Jerusalem origins and the founding of Fatah as a guerrilla organization
• The PLO leadership, Black September in Jordan, and the Lebanon years
• The Oslo Accords, the Nobel Peace Prize shared with Rabin and Peres, and the hope that collapsed
• The Second Intifada, the Ramallah siege, and his death without a state to show for a lifetime of struggle