Secretary-General of the PLO Executive Committee and Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat died on Tuesday from complications of COVID-19 at Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital in Jerusalem.
Erekat was hospitalized in Jerusalem last month, a move that aroused much controversy among the Israeli public as well as in moderate Arab countries, such as the UAE, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, who blasted the PA for its shameless hypocrisy for Erekat’s treatment in an Israeli hospital while banning its own citizens from receiving medical care in Israel, even for life-saving care unavailable in the PA.
Erekat was a senior figure in Palestinian politics for decades and was one of the chief architects of the Olso peace accords. He was considered one of arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat’s closest advisers, who appointed him in 1994 as the head of the Palestinian negotiating team with Israel. After Arafat’s death in 2004, he became a senior adviser to PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
Ironically, Erekat accused Israel in March of deliberately infecting Palestinians with the coronavirus by “spitting on Palestinian cars and property.” Erekat is no stranger to false claims and is known for claiming during the second intifada that Israel committed a “war crime” of massacring over 500 Palestinians in Jenin in the IDF’s 2002 operation when the actual number of Palestinians that were killed during the operation was 56.
In 2015, Erekat paid a condolence visit to the family of a terrorist, a member of PA intelligence, who carried out a shooting attack on soldiers. In 2010, he wrote a letter of praise for Ahmad Sadaat, the terrorist who planned the murder of former MK Rechaven Ze’evi, H’yd.
Erekat had a lung transplant three years ago in the US due to suffering from pulmonary fibrosis and also suffered a heart attack in 2012. Hadassah Ein Kerem stated that Erekat’s treatment was a formidable challenge due to his lung transplant as well as his weakened immune system, his coronavirus infection, and a bacterial infection.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared a three-day mourning period for Erekat in the Palestinian Authority.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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12 Responses
“Jewish” Democrats will sit shivah now.
Baruch Hashem.
Shame on Hadassah for treating these terrorists.
I have an urgent message for you Netanyahu:- DO NOT release his body until Sergeant Hadar’s body is returned to his parents:- No Questions asked.
Can’t fathom why any medical resources should have been expended on him. And Hadassa hospital will now be held responsible for his deTh…
The world is now a better place.
He has moved to a world where he is getting his justice served.
Couldn’t happen to a better person. Is he eligible for 72 “besulos”?
Wonderful news. May his name be blotted out. Too bad Israel wasted money on treating him – including on Shabbat.
When you don’t have Tora, thats what you do; you help your enemies before your own people. Shame on the Medina! I really dont get how these people have no sechel
At least there’s some GOOD news today
147 – i back you all the way. We have to make a real petition, not just a post on YWN.
Who is served by most of the comments on this page; by such verbiage and rhetoric?
And who says an individual such as Erekat is objectively any more worthy of being branded a “terrorist” than any number of Zionist figures? Theological problems with Zionism aside for the moment, ultimately everything comes down to a matter of perspective. There is much to the old “joke”, What’s the difference between a terrorist and a freedom fighter? Which side you’re on.
[MOD: Kindly post the following in PLACE of my previous submission on this page. Thanks.]
It is not at all clear to me that Erekat is objectively any more worthy of being branded a “terrorist” than any number of Zionist figures. Theological problems with Zionism aside for the moment, ultimately everything comes down to a matter of perspective. There is much to the old “joke”, What’s the difference between a terrorist and a freedom fighter? Which side you’re on.