Longtime Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erekat Dies Of Complications From COVID-19

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Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat seen at a 2014 press conference at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.

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Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat (farthest to the left), with Israeli and Palestinian officials as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak (left) and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat (right) shake hands before a summit at the Erez Crossing in the Gaza Strip in 2000.

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The Palestinian uprising of the early 2000s, known as the Second Intifada — with devastating Palestinian suicide bombings in Israel and intense Israeli military offensives in Palestinian population centers — dealt a severe blow to hopes for peace, which have since all but vanished. Israel’s continued construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and its separation barrier have closed off much of the land Palestinians seek for their state.

Erekat was a prominent Palestinian voice protesting President Trump’s peace negotiation team and its peace proposal that heavily favored Israel.

Meanwhile, many Palestinians came to blame leaders like Erekat for negotiating an arrangement that, instead of producing independence, kept Palestinian life under Israeli control. Many Palestinian politicians enriched themselves with funds from international donors and monopolies over resources, while internationally trained Palestinian security forces helped Israel patrol Palestinian areas and were seen by Palestinians as suppressing their struggle against Israel.

Even Erekat’s admittance to an Israeli hospital last month sparked controversy from both Palestinians and Israelis, highlighting the deep divisions that dogged his life’s work.

Palestinian Canadian Diana Buttu worked with Erekat during the years of negotiations. «I will remember him as the person who tried, who tried, she told NPR.

Born in 1955 and raised in the West Bank city of Jericho, Erekat was educated in the United States and Great Britain. He received his undergraduate and master’s degrees in international relations at San Francisco State University and a Ph.D. in peace studies at England’s University of Bradford. At the time of his death Erekat was professor of political science at An-Najah National University in Nablus.

Erekat was sharp-tongued and highly critical of Israel, but had an affable personality and forged friendly relations with his Israeli interlocutors. He served on the board of Seeds of Peace, a peace-oriented summer camp in Maine for Arab and Israeli youth. Three of his four children attended.

As peace efforts failed, Palestinians and Israelis grew farther apart, and many Palestinians came to see talks as futile. Buttu thinks Erekat was willing to give away too much.

«He was really wedded to this idea that negotiations were a useful tool, Buttu said. «Even at a time when others saw the light and saw that the negotiations process wasn’t working … he was saying ‘yes’ to things when he should have just walked out of the room.

But Erekat had his admirers, including Joel Singer, one of his Israeli negotiating counterparts during the Oslo process.

«I see him as a courageous Palestinian who devoted his life to reaching peace with Israel, peace on terms that would be acceptable to the Palestinian people, said Singer. «But yet unlike some other Palestinian groups that don’t want to reach peace with Israel, he genuinely wanted to reach peace and never gave up.

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That was not the view of many Israelis, though, especially as the country has trended rightward under a decade of leadership by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

While some Palestinians accused Erekat of offering too much, Israelis blamed him for being unwilling to compromise. When word spread that Erekat was in line for a lung transplant from an Israeli hospital, some Israelis tore up their organ donor cards in a show of contempt.

Erekat ultimately received his lung transplant in the United States in 2017. His continued pulmonary issues contributed to his death from COVID-19.

«We have come a long way. We have come a long way, Erekat told NPR, referring to both Palestinians and Israelis. «We are different people. Unfortunately, we don’t have peace.