Veteran
Palestinian negotiator and politician Saeb Erekat, who oversaw relations with
world leaders for decades, died on Tuesday at the age of 65, weeks after
contracting the COVID-19 infection.

With talks
with Israel halted for several years, including the collapse of relations
during the Donald Trump presidency, Erekat became the voice for his people,
championing their cause.

Previously,
Erekat had been part of every single delegation to negotiate with Israel since
1991, with the only exception being the one that chalked out the 1993 Oslo Accords.

Born in
Jerusalem in 1955, Erekat grew up witnessing Israel crushing its Arab neighbor in
the 1967 Six-Day War and has dedicated much of his life seeking an end to the
resulting crisis.  

“…the
departure of a brother and a friend, of the great fighter, Dr. Saeb Erekat, is
a great loss for Palestine and our people, and we are deeply saddened,” a
statement from Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas read.  

A renowned
academic and author, Erekat’s command over the English language was evident in
his work, which was often punctuated with witty humour.

The father
of four could only watch from the sidelines as the two-state solution he worked
towards for so long fell apart in the face of Israeli settlement, as sporadic
violence stalled peace efforts and Palestinian divisions.

In 2015, a
surge of violence saw Palestinian attacks escalate with a number of knife, gun
and car ramming attacks, with Erekat blaming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s
policies the violence.

“I condemn
those who destroy hope,” Erekat told AFP. “I condemn those who chose
settlements and dictation rather than peace and negotiations. And I told you I
don’t condone the killing of civilians, Israelis or Palestinians. I’m a man
of peace. I want to make peace. I recognise Israel’s right to exist.”

A member of
Palestine’s parliament since 1996, Erekat was close to the historic leader of
the Palestinian national movement, Yasser Arafat. He became a vital part of Palestine’s
political landscape as an indispensable briefer for foreign envoys as well as an
astute tactician.

Recently,
he became a star presence in Abbas’ inner circle and served as the secretary
general of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO).

A heavyset
man always dressed in a suit, he was a key interlocutor with foreign officials
as well as a prominent Palestinian voice on social media.

He was one
of the loudest critics of Israel’s policy to not return bodies of Palestinians
killed during attacks on Israelis, especially after his own nephew was shot
dead at a West Bank checkpoint in June.

After
several years of battling pulmonary fibrosis, Erekat underwent a lung
transplant in the US in 2017. On October 9, the PLO announced he had contracted
COVID-19, and on October 18 he was admitted to Israel’s Hadassah Ein Kerem
hospital.

Erekat was
a long-time architect of negotiations aspiring to end the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. He took part in the failed Camp David summit in July 2000, and the
September 2010 talks in Washington, which stopped in a row over Israel’s
settlement building.

He was also
chief negotiator in 2014 when then US president Barack Obama tried to restart
peace efforts.

Appointed
in 2003 to head the PLO negotiating team, Erekat briefly resigned from the post
in 2011 because of “responsibility for the theft of documents from his
office”, papers which he said had been “adulterated”.

He was
referring to more than 1,600 documents on the talks with Israel between 1999
and 2010, released in January 2011 by Qatar-based satellite channel Al-Jazeera
and dubbed “The Palestine Papers”.

Palestinian
officials worked to limit the damage caused by their publication, which showed
Palestinian negotiators prepared to offer significant concessions without
securing Israeli guarantees on key issues such as east Jerusalem and the fate
of refugees.

Although
the documents did not cause major turmoil in Palestinian public opinion,
Erekat’s position was weakened at the time by announcements the alleged
perpetrators of the leaks worked for the PLO negotiating team he headed.

A former
journalist with the independent daily Al-Quds in east Jerusalem, Erekat held a
BA and an MA in political science from the University of San Francisco.

He also
held a doctorate in peace studies from the University of Bradford in England,
and taught at An-Najah University in the West Bank town of Nablus from 1979 to
1991. Erekat wrote a dozen books and lived in the West Bank oasis town of
Jericho