Saeb Erekat

صائب عريقات

Born: Abu Dis, Jordanian-controlled West Bank

Domain: Politics & Diplomacy

Recognition: GLOBAL

Biography

Saeb Muhammad Salih Erekat was the longest-serving and most recognizable Palestinian negotiator, the diplomat who represented the Palestinian position across nearly three decades of talks with Israel. Born in 1955 and raised in Jericho, he studied international relations in the United States and earned a doctorate in peace studies from the University of Bradford in England before returning home to teach and enter public life. Erekat first appeared on the world stage as a member of the Palestinian delegation to the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference, and from 1995 he served as the Palestinians' chief negotiator. For the next quarter-century he was a near-constant presence at every major round of Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy, from the Oslo process and Camp David to Annapolis and the Kerry-era talks, becoming the institutional memory and most articulate explainer of the Palestinian negotiating position to international audiences. Elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council in 1996 representing Jericho, he held a series of senior posts within the Palestinian Authority and the PLO. In 2015 he was appointed secretary-general of the PLO Executive Committee, the organization's most senior administrative office, a position he held until his death and from which he managed the movement's diplomatic and institutional affairs. A committed advocate of a negotiated two-state solution, Erekat continued to defend dialogue even as the peace process collapsed, and in his final years he documented and protested the expansion of Israeli settlements and the erosion of the prospects for Palestinian statehood. He died in November 2020 from complications of COVID-19, his death marking the loss of a generation's principal diplomatic voice. Erekat is remembered as the enduring face of Palestinian diplomacy, the negotiator who carried the two-state vision through three decades of talks and setbacks. His command of the diplomatic record and his global media presence made him, for international observers, the most familiar representative of the Palestinian negotiating cause.

Why This Person Matters

Erekat was the enduring face of Palestinian diplomacy, the chief negotiator who carried the two-state vision through three decades of talks with Israel.