DEATH OF PEACE NEGOTIATOR EREKAT IS A GREAT LOSS FOR THE PALESTINIAN CAUSE
Death of peace negotiator Erekat is a great loss for the Palestinian cause
Saeb Erekat was a fundamentally good person in a place full of hopelessness.
His death after contracting coronavirus is a personal family tragedy, of course, but the loss is much broader: the Palestinian cause has also lost one of its most energetic and dedicated public servants.
Of all the protagonists of the "two-state solution", the prominent peace negotiator was the most vocal and the most respected.
For decades he has been familiar to Middle East watchers.
In moments of violent inflection across the Holy Land, he would appear on the TV screens in interviews calling for dialogue and compromise.
Behind the scenes, though, he was the key Palestinian diplomat. Educated in California and in the UK, he became the chief negotiator and a central architect of the Oslo Peace accords.
Over that time, he made personal bonds with Israeli diplomats on the other side.
Moderate Israelis respected him and will miss his diplomatic presence.
Whenever we met, he would talk with passion about his home in Jericho and his large family. His children and grandchildren seemed to be at the heart of what motivated him: fairness, equality and peace for them.
I wonder if he was well enough in these last few days to learn that Donald Trump had lost the US election?
That would have provided him with some hope. He felt that under Mr Trump, hardline Israelis were emboldened and much damage was done in the region.
He worried that as his moderate Palestinian voice was silenced, a harder line vision would emerge.
I last spoke to him two months ago.
"Look, I was 12 years old when the occupation came to my hometown Jericho," he told me.
"I am speaking to you from the house I was born in in 1955... I am standing up with an empty chest facing Israel. I am standing tall with international law; the rule of law."
For a life and an admirable role in a region full of potential jeopardy, coronavirus seems such a cruel pointless twist.
Articles - Latest
- FRENCH PALME D’OR WINNER LAURENT CANTET DIES AGED 63
- Norman Lear obituary
- AN UNHOLY TRAFFIC: HOW THE SLAVE TRADE CONTINUED THROUGH THE US CIVIL WAR
- QUEEN CHARLOTTE WAS ‘PERSON OF COLOUR’, MUSEUM CLAIMS IN LGBT GUIDE
- JEANETTE WINTERSON: I DIDN’T BELIEVE IN GHOSTS… UNTIL I STARTED LIVING WITH THEM
- ANCIENT HUMAN ACTIVITY DISCOVERED IN KILOMETER-LONG LAVA CAVE
- DNA ANALYSIS SPANNING 9 GENERATIONS OF PEOPLE REVEALS MARRIAGE PRACTICES OF MYSTERIOUS WARRIOR CULTURE
- LOST CITIES HIDDEN FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS DISCOVERED UNDER FOREST
- LETTER: ALAN ARKIN OBITUARY
- ARCHAEOLOGISTS CRACK MYSTERY OF ANCIENT MAYA AFTER 7,000-YEAR-OLD REMAINS FOUND
- NEW JERSEY REP. DONALD PAYNE JR. DEAD AT 65
- WORLD'S TALLEST WOMAN' MARIA FELICIANA DOS SANTOS, 7FT3, DIES AGED 77
- UNDERWORLD DISCOVERY CHALLENGES OUR UNDERSTANDING OF HUMAN EVOLUTION
- MUSLIM SOLDIER MEMORIAL FUND £1 MILLION TO IMPROVE RELATIONS AFTER ISLAMOPHOBIA ISSUES
- SCIENTISTS DISCOVER 1ST-OF-ITS-KIND CELL PART BORN FROM A SWALLOWED MICROBE
- NYC TIKTOK STAR EVA EVANS DIES AGED 29
- LADY GARDNER OF PARKES, CONSERVATIVE PEER WHO CHAMPIONED WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN THE EU AND UN – OBITUARY
- WEBB TELESCOPE DETECTS LIGHT FROM AN EARTH-LIKE PLANET
- FORMER LABOUR MINISTER AND CROSSBENCH PEER FRANK FIELD DIES AGED 81
- LOURDES PORTILLO DEAD AT 80:OSCAR-NOMINATED FILM DIRECTOR HAS PASSED AWAY
- VAMPIRE' NEUTRON STAR BLASTS ARE RELATED TO JETS TRAVELING AT NEAR-LIGHT SPEEDS
- THE MOON IS 40 MILLION YEARS OLDER — EXPLAINED
- BARBARA O.JONES DEAD AT 82: ACTRESS WHO STARRED ALONGSIDE MUHAMMAD ALI IN TV SERIES, HAS PASSED AWAY
Articles - Most Read
- Main
- Contact Us
- The science behind Ouija boards
- Cosmic Consciousness - What is Cosmic Consciousness-2
- Cosmic Consciousness-Introduction
- Cosmic Consciousness - Introduction-2
- MASSIVE 6.1 MAGNITUDE EARTHQUAKE HITS NEW ZEALAND AS NATION STILL REELING FROM CYCLONE
- ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNRAVEL THE TRUTH OF APHRODITE, GODDESS OF LOVE, ON VALENTINE'S DAY
- The Human Condition-Thomas Keating
- Cosmic Consciousness First Words - 1V - 2
- Cosmic Consciousness First Words - V -
- Cosmic Consciousness V - 2
- Cosmic consciousness - First Words - IV
- Cosmic Consciousness - What is Cosmic Consciousness?
- Evolution and Devolution-Chapter 2
- The Human Condition - Thomas keating-3
- The Human Condition-2-Thomas Keating
- Drinking From The Mountain Stream - Milarepa
- Cosmic Consciousness-On the Plane of Self Consciousness
- The Human Condition - 4
- Cosmic Consciousness - 3 - On the Plane of Self Consciousness
- Evolution and Devolution-Chapter 1
- The Human Condition - 6
- Shakyamuni Buddha or India the 1st “Black Revolutionary Hero.”
- On the Plane of Self Consciousness - 2
- Milarepa's World
- The Human Condition - 5
- Milarepa's World-2
- The Buddhist System of Liberation
- Contemplation and the Divine Therapy - 2
- On the Plane of Self Consciousness IV
- The Buddhist System of Liberation - 2
- JERRY RAWLINGS, GHANAIAN STRONG MAN WHO CAME TO POWER IN A COUP BUT INTRODUCED DEMOCRACY – OBITUARY
- On the Plane of Self Consciousness IV - 2