A veteran negotiator and Palestinian architect of the Oslo peace accords, Saeb Erekat died in an Israeli hospital on Tuesday after developing Covid-19.
The 65-year-old secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation died three weeks after being transferred to Jerusalem’s Hadassah hospital, where he was immediately put on a ventilator.
"Unfortunately, his condition did not improve and remained critical, and he passed away following multi-organ failure," hospital spokeswoman Hadar Elboim told The National.
“The Hadassah team extends its condolences to his family, admirers, friends and the Palestinian people,” she said. Treating Erekat was particularly challenging as he had a lung transplant in 2017, doctors said.
Erekat, who was central to peace talks over the past three decades, was described as a “great fighter” by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
"Our people will remember the deceased, Dr Saeb Erekat, the son of Palestine, who stood at the forefront defending the causes of his homeland and his people in the fields of the national struggle and in the international arena," Mr Abbas said.
Three days of mourning were declared by the Palestinian government, with flags to be flown at half staff.
Erekat participated in key peace negotiations with Israel, including the 1991 Madrid conference, the Oslo talks of the 1990s, and the Camp David summit in 2000 hosted by then US president Bill Clinton.
He was a vocal critic of Israeli settlement building on occupied land and pushed for a two-state solution with a viable independent Palestinian state.
Such aspirations seemed increasingly out of reach towards the end of Erekat’s life, with Israeli-Palestinian talks stalled and US government policy under President Donald Trump perceived as biased towards Israel.
"Our right to self-determination has been systematically denied by Israel, now with the support of the US," Erekat told The National this year.
The Trump administration has taken a series of controversial steps which broke with decades of international consensus, including recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving the US embassy to the city.
“It's our inalienable, sacred, long overdue and internationally recognised right to be free,” said Erekat, who was born in Jerusalem and before he was taken to hospital lived in the West Bank city of Jericho.
He came across as affable and self-deprecating in the Palestine Papers, leaked documents mainly from his own office that chronicled the workings of the negotiations from the 1990s until 2010.
But he was also a central figure in the ageing leadership, which many Palestinians accused of nepotism and failure to see their aspirations realised.
Erekat was nonetheless admired by many at home and abroad. Former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni was among the hundreds who paid tributes.
“Saeb dedicated his life to his people,” she wrote on Twitter. “Being sick, he texted me: ‘I’m not finished with what I was born to do’.”
Ayman Odeh, head of the Arab-led Joint List in Israeli parliament, said Erekat “will not live to see his people freed from the chains of the occupation”.
“But generations of Palestinians will remember him as one of the giants who dedicated his life for their independence.”
There have been more than 70,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the Palestinian Territories and 521 deaths.
