2016-12-07 Wed

The creation of the state of Israel in Palestine by United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) in 1948, originally inhabited by Palestinian Arabs led to four consecutive wars: Arab-Israeli War (1948), Suez War (1956), Six-day War (1967) and Yom Kippur War (1973).

Though the Arab League soldiers (soldiers of Egypt, Trans-Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen) were larger in population, the Israelis won the wars. Israel was better armed and all Israelis knew that they were fighting for their very existence. Yasser Arafat emerged as the undisputed leader of Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1967 post the Six-Day War.

In 1993, Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin flew to Washington DC and agreed to sign a historic peace agreement called the Oslo Accord. By this peace accord, Israel formally recognized the PLO; the PLO recognized Israel’s right to exist and promised to give up terrorism; Israel agreed to allow Palestinian self-rule, first in the Gaza Strip and the West bank town of Jericho, and later in other areas of the West bank not settled by Jews.

Palestinian Authority issued a stamp of Yasser Arafat in 1996 valuing 1,000 Jordanian fils. The stamp depicts the bust of Yasser, behind him is plain and Arabic inscriptions on top.