Yasir Arafat Yasir Arafat was born in 1929. He became chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1969. The PLO is a confederation of Palestine Arab groups that work to establish an Arab state in what was once Palestine. Most of the area that formed Palestine is now part of Israel. Arafat claims he was both in Jerusalem in what was then the British mandate of Palestine but his birth certificate indicates that he was born in Cairo, Egypt. His full name is: Mohammad Abdel-Raouf Arafat AL-Qudwa Al-Husseini. He acquired the nickname Yasir which means easygoing as a teenager. He earned a degree in civil engineering at Cario University, in Egypt. In the 1950's Arafat helped