SBS50: Biggest Stories 1994

After 27 years in exile, 1994 was marked by Yasser Arafat’s return to the Gaza Strip. The P-L-O leader gave a triumphant address to 200 thousand Palestinians in Gaza city.

Huge enthusiastic crowds of Palestinians gather to welcome President Yasser Arafat back from exile to Gaza. (Photo by Tom Stoddart/Getty Images) Credit: Tom Stoddart Archive/Getty Images

Yasser Arafat’s return was one of the first actions of the fledgling Middle East peace process, born out of the Oslo accords.

National unity is our shield, our shield, our protector, our way and guide to having an independent state, and Jerusalem will be its capital.

Yasser Arafat

Later 1994, Arafat shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.

The second intifada erupted in 2000 and the peace process has struggled ever since to take hold.

For the last years of his life, Yasser Arafat was confined by the Israelis to the West Bank town of Ramallah.

He died in 2004.

Discover more at sbs.com.au/sbs50