Famous Palestinian Leaders

Yasser Arafat was a Palestinian political leader. One of the most important figures of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which began in the mid-20th century, Yasser Arafat remains a controversial figure as he is regarded as a hero by the Palestinian people while the Israelis view him as a terrorist. 

Marwan Barghouti is a Palestinian political figure who was arrested by the Israeli Defense Forces on charges of murder. Considered the leader of the First Palestinian Intifada and the Second Intifada, Marwan Barghouti still plays an influential role in the political matters of Fatah from within the prison.

Hanan Ashrawi is a Palestinian leader, legislator, activist, and scholar. She was the official spokesperson of the Palestinian delegation at the Madrid Peace Conference of 1991 and was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council as a representative of Jerusalem in 1996. She is also the founder of the Independent Commission for Human Rights and the author of several books. 

Palestinian political leader and co-founder of the party Fatah, Khalil al-Wazir became a top leader of Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization. He fled his native Palestine during the war that formed Israel. A military strategist, too, he later participated in the First Intifada and was later killed by Israeli commandos.