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Saeb Erekat

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Saeb Erekat
صائب محمد صالح عريقات
Erekat in London, December 2014
Member of the Palestinian Parliament
for Jericho
In office
20 January 1996 – 10 November 2020
Majority31,501
Personal details
Born
Saeb Muhammad Salih Erekat

(1955-04-28)28 April 1955
Abu Dis, Jordanian-annexed West Bank
Died10 November 2020(2020-11-10) (aged 65)
Jerusalem
NationalityPalestinian
Political partyFatah
Spouse
Neameh Erekat
​
​
(m. 1981; died 2020)​
Children4
RelativesNoura Erakat (niece)
Yousef Erakat (nephew)
Ahmad Erekat (nephew)
ResidenceJericho
Alma materCity College of San Francisco, San Francisco State University and University of Bradford

Saeb Muhammad Salih Erekat (Arabic: صائب محمد صالح عريقات Ṣāʼib ʻUrayqāt; also ʻRēqāt, Erikat, Erakat, Arekat; 28 April 1955 – 10 November 2020) was a Palestinian politician and diplomat who was the secretary general of the executive committee of the PLO from 2015 until his death in 2020.[1][2] He served as chief of the PLO Steering and Monitoring Committee until 12 February 2011. He participated in early negotiations with Israel and remained chief negotiator from 1995 until May 2003, when he resigned in protest from the Palestinian government. He reconciled with the party and was reappointed to the post in September 2003.

Personal life and education

Erekat was born in Abu Dis.[3][4][5] He was a member of the Palestinian branch of the Erekat family, itself a branch of the Howeitat tribal confederation.[6] Erekat was one of seven children, with his brothers and sisters living outside of Israel or the Palestinian territories.[7] He was 12 years old when the Israelis occupied the West Bank, and was detained by them a year later for writing anti-occupation graffiti, posting fliers and throwing stones.[8]

In 1972, Erekat moved to San Francisco, California, to attend college.[9] He spent two years at City College of San Francisco, a two-year community college.[9] He then transferred to San Francisco State University.[9] There, Erekat received a BA in international relations (in 1977) and an MA in political science (in 1979).[5] He completed his PhD in peace and conflict studies at the University of Bradford in England (in 1983).[5][10]

Erekat was married to Neameh, and was the father of twin daughters Dalal and Salam; and two sons, Ali and Muhammad.[8]

Career

After gaining his doctorate in England, Erekat moved to the West Bank town of Nablus to lecture in political science at An-Najah National University and also served for 12 years on the editorial board of the locally widely circulated Palestinian newspaper, Al-Quds.[5][11]

Politics

In 1991, Erekat was deputy head of the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid Conference and the subsequent follow-up talks in Washington D.C. between 1992 and 1993. In 1994, he was appointed the Minister for Local Government for the Palestinian National Authority and also the Chairman of the Palestinian negotiation delegation.[5] In 1995, Erekat served as Chief Negotiator for the Palestinians during the Oslo period. He was then elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council in 1996, representing Jericho.[5] As a politician, Erekat was considered to be a Yasser Arafat loyalist, including the Camp David meetings in 2000 and the negotiations at Taba in 2001. Erekat was also, along with Arafat and Faisal Husseini, one of the three high-ranking Palestinians who asked Ariel Sharon not to visit Al-Aqsa in September 2000,[12] an event which was followed by the Second Intifada. He also acted as Arafat's English interpreter. When Mahmoud Abbas was nominated to serve as Prime Minister of the Palestinian Legislative Council in early 2003, Erekat was slated to be Minister of Negotiations in the new cabinet, but he soon resigned after he was excluded from a delegation to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. This was interpreted as part of an internal Palestinian power struggle between Abbas and Arafat.[11][13] Erekat was later reappointed to his post and participated in the 2007 Annapolis Conference, where he took over from Ahmed Qurei during an impasse and helped hammer out a joint declaration.[14]

He resigned from his post as chief negotiator on 12 February 2011 citing the release of the Palestine Papers.[15] In July 2013, however, he was still holding the function.[16] In 2015, he became the secretary-general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization. He later promoted a plan for the basis for new talks with international diplomats including Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and special adviser.[8]

Legacy

Erekat was one of the more prominent Palestinian spokespeople in the Western media.[17] He wrote extensively in the media about Palestinian statehood,[18] and was a vocal critic of the Trump administration's peace plan.[19]

Erekat at one time maintained good relations with his counterpart negotiators, in which Israeli justice minister Tsipi Livni mentioned that her talks with Erekat were always honest, and there was mutual respect despite frequent disagreements.[8] In addition, Erekat took his American counterpart, Martin Indyk, on a tour of Hisham's Palace near Jericho.[8]

Health issues and death

On 8 May 2012, Erekat was hospitalized in Ramallah after suffering a heart attack.[20]

On 12 October 2017, he had a lung transplant at Inova Fairfax Hospital in northern Virginia, United States.[21]

Erekat, who was suffering from pulmonary fibrosis,[22] tested positive for COVID-19 on 9 October 2020.[23] On 18 October, he was sent to the Israeli Hadassah Ein Karem hospital in Jerusalem in critical condition.[24] On 21 October, his daughter said on Twitter that he underwent a bronchoscopy to examine the condition of his respiratory system.[25] Erekat died of complications from COVID-19 on 10 November 2020, at the age of 65.[26][27] He was interred in the cemetery in Jericho.[28]

Works

See also

References

  1. ^ "Saeb Erekat (Secretary General)". ECFR. Archived from the original on 27 January 2021. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  2. ^ "Saeb Erekat | The Guardian". the Guardian. Archived from the original on 26 June 2020. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  3. ^ "Palestinian Biographies: Saeb Erekat". lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 5 August 2017.
  4. ^ John Pike. "Saeb Erekat". Globalsecurity.org. Archived from the original on 21 September 2016. Retrieved 5 August 2017.
  5. ^ a b c d e f "Politics in Palestine, Palestinian National Authority: The PA Ministerial Cabinet List Emergency Cabinet, October 2003 – November 2003". Jerusalem Media and Communication Centre. Archived from the original on 15 August 2007.
  6. ^ عائلة عريقات [family Erekat]. rabettah.net (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 10 November 2020. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
  7. ^ "Chief Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erekat: Abu Mazen Rejected the Israeli Proposal in Annapolis Like Arafat Rejected the Camp David 2000 Proposal". MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute) (video with transcript). 27 March 2009. Archived from the original on 5 August 2009. Retrieved 5 August 2017. In my family, we are seven siblings. My six brothers and sisters are in the diaspora.
  8. ^ a b c d e "Saeb Erekat, Longtime Palestinian Chief Negotiator, Dies at 65". The New York Times. 10 November 2020. Archived from the original on 10 November 2020. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  9. ^ a b c "Saeb Erekat, Forging a Path to Peace". SF State Magazine. Vol. 4, no. 1. Fall–Winter 2003. Archived from the original on 21 February 2018. Retrieved 21 February 2018.
  10. ^ Mattar, Philip (19 November 2005). Encyclopedia of the Palestinians. Infobase Publishing. p. 149. ISBN 9780816069866. Archived from the original on 10 November 2020. Retrieved 16 October 2020 – via Google Books.
  11. ^ a b "Profile: Saeb Erakat". BBC News. 4 September 2003. Archived from the original on 27 July 2004. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
  12. ^ Klein, Menachem (2003). The Jerusalem Problem: The Struggle for Permanent Status. University Press of Florida. p. 98.
  13. ^ "Q & A with Saeb Erekat". The Jerusalem Post. 1 February 2005. Archived from the original on 31 October 2006.
  14. ^ Issacharoff, Avi; Ravid, Barak (28 November 2007). "Annapolis joint statement was completed with just minutes to spare". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 29 November 2007. Retrieved 29 November 2007.
  15. ^ "Erekat quits over Palestine Papers – Middle East". Al Jazeera English. 13 February 2011. Archived from the original on 13 February 2011. Retrieved 12 February 2011.
  16. ^ "Press Release−Dr. Erekat: "We will continue working for the release of all our political prisoners."". PLO Negotiations Affairs Department. 28 July 2013. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013.
  17. ^ Bennet, James (17 May 2003). "Top Palestinian Negotiator Offers to Quit on Eve of Talks". New York Times. Retrieved 29 January 2012.
  18. ^ "Saeb Erekat". Haaretz. 10 March 2019. Archived from the original on 31 October 2020. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  19. ^ Erekat, Saeb. "The Trump administration, peddling Israeli extremism, is killing the peace process, not me | Opinion". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 20 August 2020. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
  20. ^ "Top Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat suffers heart attack". The Independent. 8 May 2012. Archived from the original on 31 July 2017. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
  21. ^ Rasgon, Adam (14 October 2017). "Palestinian negotiator Erekat undergoes successful lung transplant surgery". Jerusalem Post. Archived from the original on 15 November 2019. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
  22. ^ "His Health Crisis Made Public, Palestinian Envoy Pushes On". The New York Times. 2 August 2017. Archived from the original on 31 October 2020. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  23. ^ "Palestinian negotiator Erekat facing 'difficult' coronavirus symptoms". Reuters. 9 October 2020. Archived from the original on 17 October 2020. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
  24. ^ Jabari, Lawahez (18 October 2020). "Senior PLO official Saeb Erekat taken to hospital as Covid-19 condition worsens". NBC News. Archived from the original on 18 October 2020. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
  25. ^ "No Change in the Health Condition of Saeb Erekat, Says Family". WAFA News Agency. 24 October 2020. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
  26. ^ "Saeb Erekat dies after coronavirus infection". DW. 10 November 2020. Archived from the original on 10 November 2020. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  27. ^ Black, Ian (10 November 2020). "Saeb Erekat obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 November 2020.
  28. ^ Carey, Andrew (11 November 2020). "Funeral ceremonies honor top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat". CNN. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
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