ARAFAT, Yasser.
Yasser Arafat Signed Magazine Interview.
$450.00
In Stock
Item Number: RRB-152552
+$500
U.S. News & World Report Interview Signed by PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, with the Accompanying Letter of Transmittal from His Office in Tunis
Signed magazine leaf bearing an interview with the PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, boldly signed and dated by him during the fraught diplomacy that followed the Madrid Peace Conference, together with the original letter from his office returning it. A single leaf torn from the August 26 and September 2, 1991 issue of U.S. News & World Report, printing an interview with Arafat headed "Playing peace conference politics: PLO chairman Yassir Arafat talks about Palestinian representation, sort of," conducted in Tunis by senior correspondent Richard Z. Chesnoff, with a color photograph of Arafat. Signed and dated by Arafat in red ink near the top, "Y. Arafat 22.4.92." Accompanied by the original letter of transmittal that returned this signed interview to the collector. One page on the watermarked bilingual English and Arabic letterhead of the State of Palestine, Palestine Liberation Organization, President's Office, dated at Tunis, April 28, 1992, and signed in ink by Dr. Sami Musallam, Director of the Office of the President. Written on the direct instructions of Arafat, the letter reads in part, "Upon instructions of H.E. Mr. Yasser Arafat, President of the State of Palestine, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the PLO, I would like to thank you for your letter dated February 29, 92. Kindly find enclosed the U.S. News & World Report article and interview you sent signed by H.E. President Arafat. Thank you for your interest and support." Both in near fine condition, the interview with flattened folds and a slightly deckled left edge from the removal of the leaf. From the collection of John H. Bullard of Ogden, Utah, a Vietnam veteran with a keen interest in politics. The interview measures 7.875 inches by 10.325 inches and the letter measures 8.25 inches by 11.625 inches. Rare and desirable with noted provenance.
Yasser Arafat was chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization from 1969 to 2004 and president of the Palestinian National Authority from 1994 to 2004. Ideologically an Arab nationalist and a socialist, Arafat was a founding member of the Fatah political party, which he led from 1959 until 2004. In the latter part of the 1950s, Arafat co-founded Fatah, a paramilitary organization which sought Israel's replacement with a Palestinian state. In 1988, he acknowledged Israel's right to exist and sought a two-state solution to the Israeli and Palestinian conflict, and in 1994 he returned to the Palestinian territories, settling in Gaza City and promoting self-governance. In 1994 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize together with the Israeli leaders Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres for their efforts in the Oslo peace process. Arafat remains a controversial figure, viewed by many Palestinians as a martyr who symbolized the national aspirations of his people, while many Israelis regarded him as a terrorist. This interview dates from August and September of 1991, in the weeks before the Madrid Peace Conference, when the question of Palestinian representation was at the center of the diplomacy that would soon reshape the region.
Yasser Arafat Signed Magazine Interview.
$450.00
In Stock