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The secretary of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Saeb Erekat, passed away on Tuesday, at the age of 65, after contracting the coronavirus and spending about three weeks in the Israeli Hadassah hospital for treatment.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas lamented Erekat and said: “The departure of a brother and friend, the great fighter, Dr. Saeb Erekat, represents a great loss for Palestine and our people, and we feel deep regret for his loss, especially in light of these difficult circumstances facing the Palestinian cause. “
Erekat was declared infected with the coronavirus on October 9, 2020. On October 18, he was transferred to the Israeli Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem for treatment. According to the hospital, Erekat was in need of high-flow oxygen and was being treated in the intensive care room for coronavirus patients.
Erekat is the chief Palestinian negotiator and the living archive of the negotiating archive, after he took over the archive of negotiations with Israel in the mid-1990s. Erekat has practiced negotiation since his participation in the joint Palestinian-Jordanian delegation. to the Madrid Conference in 1991, which made it present on the Palestinian political scene during the last three decades.
Erekat comes from one of the Abu Dis families, east of occupied Jerusalem, but lived in a house he inherited from his father in Jericho. He has a doctorate in political science from the British University of Dunford, and after graduation he worked as a professor at An-Najah University in Nablus, then assumed many political and ministerial responsibilities during the era of the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, continuing his functions during the era of his successor Mahmoud Abbas.
Erekat’s negotiating experience with Israel is remarkably rich, as he participated in all rounds of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations with the exception of the secret Oslo negotiations.
Before his transfer to the Israeli hospital to receive treatment for Covid-19, Erekat intensified statements against the normalization of relations between Israel and the Gulf countries, in the absence of a peace agreement between the Palestinians and the Israelis.
Erekat was a supporter of the two-state solution and thus was a key Palestinian voice in opposition to the Israeli policy of settlements on lands captured by Israel in the 1967 war.
In 2017, Erekat, who suffered from pulmonary fibrosis, underwent a lung transplant at a hospital in the United States, affecting his ability to tolerate Covid-19 disease.
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