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Jerusalem (AFP)
The secretary of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Saeb Erekat, 65, died on Tuesday at the Israeli Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem as a result of infection with the new Corona virus, according to the Palestinian presidency.
The Palestinian Presidency stated that Erekat’s body will be transferred to a hospital near Ramallah, and a military funeral will be organized in Muqata, where the Palestinian presidency is located, before his burial remains in the city of Jericho where he lived most of the time. of their life.
The Palestinian presidency called Erekat, announcing mourning, for flags at half mast for three days.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that the death of the chief Palestinian negotiator was “a great loss for Palestine and for our people.”
The Jordanian monarch, in a phone call with the Palestinian president, offered his condolences for the death of Erekat, “who spent his life serving the Palestinian cause and defending the rights and just causes of the Palestinian people.”
Egypt also called Erekat “the one who spent his life defending the rights of the Palestinians.”
In its obituary, Germany called on Palestinian leaders to continue the Erekat negotiation approach.
On October 9, the Palestine Liberation Organization announced that it had been infected with the Coronavirus.
Erekat, who had previously undergone a lung transplant, was hospitalized in Jerusalem on October 18.
The Israeli hospital to which Erekat was transferred declared his condition “critical” and placed ventilators on him.
Erekat, close to Mahmoud Abbas, suffered for years from pulmonary fibrosis, and in 2017 he underwent a lung transplant at a hospital in the United States.
– Chief Negotiator –
Erekat became famous in most of the negotiations that took place between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel, since the Madrid Peace Conference in 1991, and he witnessed the various fluctuations in the political negotiations that took place between the two. parts.
Erekat is known as the main Palestinian negotiator as the head of the negotiating affairs department of the Palestine Liberation Organization since 2003. He resigned from this position in February 2011 due to the release of documents on the peace negotiations with Israel between 1999 and 2010, which were broadcast on the Al-Jazeera satellite channel.
The head of the Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, and the former head of the movement, Khaled Meshaal, offered their condolences to Palestinian President Abbas for the death of Erekat, according to the Palestinian News Agency (Wafa).
The announcement of Erekat’s death comes as the Palestinian leadership on Wednesday marks the 16th anniversary of the departure of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, with whom Erekat worked with him throughout the negotiations between the Palestinian and Israeli sides.
A statement announcing the Palestinian presidency declared that Erekat “spent his life as a fighter and a tough negotiator defending Palestine, its cause, its people and its independent national decision.”
The statement added: “Today Palestine misses this patriotic leader and the great fighter who played a great role in raising the flag of Palestine high and defending the rights of our people and their national constants, in all international forums.”
The Palestinian government also lamented Erekat.
“Palestine misses today this great patriotic leader and fighter who had a great role in raising the Palestinian flag high and defending the rights of our people and their national constants in all international forums,” the obituary reads.
– University professor and journalist –
Erekat played an academic role in Palestinian universities, where he studied political science at Palestinian An-Najah University, rather than the academic lectures he gave.
Erekat is the author of many political books, including one titled “Life is Negotiations,” in which he talks about his experience in political negotiations.
The university professor, born in Jerusalem in 1955, represented a fundamental figure in the Palestinian arena and an unbeatable interlocutor for foreign envoys, speaks fluent English and has a good sense of humor.
He criticized the recent normalization announced between Israel and the Arab countries.
Erekat believed that the agreement to normalize relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates “kills” the two-state solution and “strengthens the militants” and “eliminates” any possibility of peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
Erekat was a member of the Palestinian Parliament since 1996 and a person close to the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, but was not with him in his exile abroad.
Recently, Erekat has become one of the staunchest critics of the Israeli policy of detaining the bodies of Palestinians who died during attacks on Israelis, especially after the murder of a young relative at a military checkpoint in the occupied West Bank. last June.
Erekat received his undergraduate degree from the University of San Francisco, USA, and then from the University of Bradford in Great Britain, a doctorate in peace studies.
He later worked as a professor of political science at the An-Najah National University in Nablus, which is one of the oldest and largest Palestinian universities, in the West Bank from 1979 to 1991.
He worked as a journalist for the Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds for 12 years. He wrote about ten books, and he and his family used the city of Jericho, near Jerusalem.
He is married to Nehme Erekat and has children Dalal, Peace, Ali and Muhammad.
© 2020 AFP
