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- The secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Saeb Erekat, died of Covid-19 the former negotiator in the peace talks.
- The 65-year-old had been hospitalized in a Jerusalem hospital since mid-October due to severe respiratory problems after a coronary disease.
- After his condition deteriorated, he was placed under general anesthesia and artificially ventilated.
According to doctors, treatment was especially difficult because Erekat’s immune system was suppressed after a lung transplant three years ago.
Erekat was considered a close confidant of Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas. The political science doctor had been chief negotiator in negotiations with Israel since the mid-1990s. The talks have been inactive since 2014.
Fight for a two-state solution
Erekat had advocated a two-state solution and has always criticized the development of Israeli settlements as an obstacle to peace. He dismissed US President Donald Trump’s Middle East plan, released in January, as the “fraud of the century” and a one-sided pro-Israeli initiative.
Erekat had also strongly criticized the establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and two Gulf states because the agreements had been reached without a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The fact that Israeli doctors recently fought for his life sparked a lot of damaging comments on social media. Erekat leaves behind a wife and four children.
Activities as chief negotiator
The political science doctor had been chief negotiator in negotiations with Israel since the mid-1990s. However, discussions have been inactive since 2014. People around him described Erekat as smart and effective. At the same time, he was seen as a tough negotiating partner who loyally implemented the guidelines of his political leadership.
The Palestinian politician was born in a suburb of Jerusalem in 1955. He comes from a large and widely branched family that is considered part of the Palestinian upper class because of its wealth. He was initially a close follower of PLO president Yasser Arafat, who died in 2004. After Abbas promoted him to PLO secretary general in 2015, some saw him as future president.
Lecturer at the University of Nablus
Erekat did not speak Hebrew, but he was fluent in English. In conversations with Western TV stations, he explicitly explained the Palestinian point of view. He studied in San Francisco and Bradford, UK, among others. There he earned a doctorate in peace and conflict studies.
In Britain it was also clear to him for the first time that the conflict in the Middle East could not be resolved by force, but only through negotiations, he later said. Upon his return to the Palestinian Territories, Erekat became a professor of political science at the University of Nablus. He also worked as a journalist.
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