Saeb Erekat: Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 15:52, 3 December 2007

File:Saeb-erekat.jpg

Saeb Erekat

Saeb Erakat (Sa'ib Muhammad Salih 'Urayqat. Template:Lang-ar, born 1955 in Jerusalem) is the chief of the PLO Steering and Monitoring Committee. He negotiated the Oslo Accords with Israel and remained chief negotiator from 1995 until May 2003, when he resigned in protest from the Palestinian government. He quickly reconciled with his party and was reappointed to the post in September 2003. Saeb Erekat is currently part of the Israel-Fatah negotiations team working to establish a Palestinian state.

Personal life

Saeb Erekat was born on April 28 1955 in Jerusalem. He is married with twin daughters and two sons. Erekat received a BA and MA in International Relations at San Francisco State University, and he received a doctorate in Peace Studies at the University of Bradford in England. He returned to lecture in Political Science at the An-Najah National University in the West Bank town of Nablus, and also served for 12 years on the editorial board of Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds. Erekat is the author of eight books and numerous research papers on foreign policy, oil and conflict resolution. He also served as secretary general of the Arab Studies Society.

Chief Negotiator

Erekat has participated in numerous peace negotiations with Israel. He was deputy head of the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid Conference in 1991 and the 1992-1993 follow-up talks in Washington. In 1995, he served as Chief Negotiator for the Palestinians during the Oslo period, including the Camp David meetings in 2000 and the negotiations at Taba in 2001. He also acted as Yasser Arafat's interpreter from English. When Mahmoud Abbas was nominated to serve as Prime Minister of the Palestinian Legislative Council in early 2003, 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 with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. This was interpreted as part of an internal Palestinian power struggle between Abbas and Arafat. Erekat was later reappointed to his post and participated in the 2007 Annapolis Conference, where he took over from Ahmed Qureia during an impasse and helped hammer out a joint declaration.

Controversies

Battle of Jenin controversy

Main article: Battle of Jenin

Erekat, being the most prominent representative on Western television stations for the Palestinians, came under criticism after Palestinian spokesmen, himself included, characterized Israel's operations in Jenin as a "massacre" since it's early stages. Erekat controversially stated that the Israeli army had indiscriminately massacred at least 500 Palestinian civilians in the refugee camp of Jenin, A claim which was widely refuted as being false. Israeli media leveled the accusation that "the international press prefers hype to facts."

Jewish state controversy

Erekat, part of the Israeli-Fatah negotiations team has been noted by the Israeli media and criticized for stating in November 2007 that the Palestinians will not accept Israel as 'Jewish state' and for his radio statement that, "no state in the world connects its national identity to a religious identity." Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime minister was noted replying that, "We won't hold negotiations on our existence as a Jewish state, this is a launching point for all negotiations," while others noted the fallacy in Erekat's latter claim regarding religious identities.

References

External links

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