Saeb Erekat

Saeb Muhammad Salih Erekat (28 April 1955 – 10 November 2020), known by his kunya Abu Ali, was a Palestinian politician and diplomat who was the Palestinians' chief negotiator with Israel from 1995, a minister in the Palestinian National Authority, and secretary general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization from 2015 until his death. ^{1 2}

He was born in Abu Dis near Jerusalem, a member of the Palestinian branch of the Erekat family, itself part of the Howeitat tribal confederation, and one of seven children whose siblings lived outside Palestine. He was twelve when Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, and was detained a year later for writing anti-occupation graffiti, posting fliers and throwing stones. ¹

He spent two years at City College of San Francisco, then studied at San Francisco State University and at the University of Bradford in Britain. ¹ He later taught at An-Najah National University in Nablus, whose academic staff the article lists him among. ¹

Erekat took part in the early negotiations with Israel and was the Palestinians' chief negotiator from 1995, chairing the PLO Steering and Monitoring Committee until 12 February 2011. He resigned from the Palestinian government in May 2003 in protest at being excluded from a delegation to meet Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon — read at the time as part of an internal power struggle between Mahmoud Abbas and Yasser Arafat — then reconciled with the leadership and was reappointed that September. ¹

At the 2007 Annapolis Conference he took over from Ahmed Qurei during an impasse and helped hammer out a joint declaration. He resigned as chief negotiator on 12 February 2011 over the release of the Palestine Papers, though he was still performing the function in practice afterwards. ¹

In the Palestinian Authority he held a succession of ministries: Local Government (1994–2003), Negotiations Affairs (2003–2005) and Information (2004–2005), and he sat in the Legislative Council for the Jericho constituency from 1996. ¹

On 5 July 2015 Erekat became secretary general of the PLO Executive Committee, the post he held until his death. In his last years he promoted a plan as the basis for new talks and met international diplomats including Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and special adviser. ^{1 2}

Erekat was one of the most prominent Palestinian spokespeople in Western media. He wrote extensively about Palestinian statehood and was a vocal critic of the Trump administration's peace plan. The article records that his counterpart negotiators kept good relations with him: Israeli justice minister Tzipi Livni said her talks with him were always honest, with mutual respect despite frequent disagreements. He also acted as Yasser Arafat's English interpreter. ¹

He published a book in English on Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib (may God be pleased with him) and the art of negotiation (2015), which the article lists among his works. ¹

Erekat was married to Neameh and had twin daughters, Dalal and Salam, and two sons, Ali and Muhammad; this museum publishes no family detail beyond what understanding his work needs. ¹

He suffered from pulmonary fibrosis and received a lung transplant at a hospital in Virginia in October 2017. He contracted COVID-19 in October 2020, was taken to Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital in Jerusalem in critical condition, and died on 10 November 2020, aged 65, of complications of the disease. His body was honoured in Ramallah and he was interred in the cemetery in Jericho. ^{1 2}

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