1. Saeb Muhammad Salih Erekat was a Palestinian politician and diplomat who was the secretary general of the executive committee of the PLO from 2015 until his death in 2020.
24 Facts About Saeb Erekat
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Saeb Erekat served as chief of the PLO Steering and Monitoring Committee until 12 February 2011.
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Saeb Erekat participated in early negotiations with Israel and remained chief negotiator from 1995 until May 2003, when he resigned in protest from the Palestinian government.
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Saeb Erekat reconciled with the party and was reappointed to the post in September 2003.
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Saeb Erekat was a member of the Palestinian branch of the Erekat family, itself a branch of the Howeitat tribal confederation.
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Saeb Erekat was 12 years old when the Israelis occupied the West Bank, and was detained by them a year later for writing anti-occupation graffiti, posting fliers and throwing stones.
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In 1972, Saeb Erekat moved to San Francisco, California, to attend college.
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Saeb Erekat spent two years at City College of San Francisco, a two-year community college.
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Saeb Erekat completed his PhD in peace and conflict studies at the University of Bradford in England.
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Saeb Erekat was married to Neameh, and was the father of twin daughters Dalal and Salam; and two sons, Ali and Muhammad.
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Saeb Erekat served for 12 years on the editorial board of the locally widely circulated Palestinian newspaper, Al-Quds.
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In 1991, Saeb Erekat was deputy head of the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid Conference and the subsequent follow-up talks in Washington DC between 1992 and 1993.
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In 1995, Saeb Erekat served as Chief Negotiator for the Palestinians during the Oslo period.
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Saeb Erekat was then elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council in 1996, representing Jericho.
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Saeb Erekat was, along with Arafat and Faisal Husseini, one of the three high-ranking Palestinians who asked Ariel Sharon not to visit Al-Aqsa in September 2000, an event which was followed by the Second Intifada.
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When Mahmoud Abbas was nominated to serve as Prime Minister of the Palestinian Legislative Council in early 2003, Saeb Erekat was slated to be Minister of Negotiations in the new cabinet, but he soon resigned after he was excluded from a delegation to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
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Saeb Erekat was later reappointed to his post and participated in the 2007 Annapolis Conference, where he took over from Ahmed Qurei during an impasse and helped hammer out a joint declaration.
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Saeb Erekat resigned from his post as chief negotiator on 12 February 2011 citing the release of the Palestine Papers.
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Saeb Erekat later promoted a plan for the basis for new talks with international diplomats including Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and special adviser.
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Saeb Erekat was one of the more prominent Palestinian spokespeople in the Western media.
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Saeb Erekat wrote extensively in the media about Palestinian statehood, and was a vocal critic of the Trump administration's peace plan.
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On 8 May 2012, Saeb Erekat was hospitalized in Ramallah after suffering a heart attack.
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Saeb Erekat, who was suffering from pulmonary fibrosis, tested positive for COVID-19 on 9 October 2020.
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Saeb Erekat died of complications from COVID-19 on 10 November 2020, at the age of 65.