Yasser Arafat

Yasser Arafat (August 4 or August 24, 1929 – November 11, 2004),

Verified

• I come bearing an olive branch in one hand, and the freedom fighter's gun in the other. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.
  • November 13, 1974 Speech to the United Nations General Assembly , New York

• Those who call us terrorists wish to prevent world public opinion from discovering the truth about us and from seeing the justice on our faces. They seek to bide the terrorism and tyranny of their acts, and our own posture of self-defence.
  • November 13, 1974: Speech to the United Nations General Assembly , New York

• The Israelis are mistaken if they think we do not have an alternative to negotiations. By Allah I swear they are wrong. The Palestinian people are prepared to sacrifice the last boy and the last girl so that the Palestinian flag will be flown over the walls, the churches and the mosques of Jerusalem.
  • in a speech given on 6 August 1995 at a party to celebrate the birth of his daughter (Haaretz, 6 September 1995; The Jerusalem Post, 7 September 1995)

• This child, who is grasping the stone, facing the tank, is it not the greatest message to the world when that hero becomes a martyr? We are proud of them
  • January 15, 2002 (Palestinian Authority Television)

• I swear to God, I will see [the Palestinian state], whether as a martyr or alive. Please, God, give me the honor of becoming a martyr in the fight for Jerusalem.
  • January 21, 2002 [1]

• This is my homeland; no one can kick me out" Yasser Arafat's reply to Ariel Sharon's threat to expel him from the occupied territories.
  • September 11, 2003 [2]

• Let it collapse, it will be the fault of Israel and the Americans.
  • February 29, 2004 to Edward G. Abington , a former State Department official who is now a Washington consultant to the Palestinian Authority regarding the future of the Palestinian Authority [3]

Attributed