Saeb Erekat

Saeb Muhammad Salih Erekat (also Erifat or Erakat or Arekat;   Ṣāʼib ʻUrayqāt or ʻRēqāt; 28 April 1955 – 10 November 2020) was a Palestinian politician and diplomat. He is the Secretary General of the Executive Committee of the PLO since 2015. He was chief of the PLO Steering and Monitoring Committee until 12 February 2011. 

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 has been a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council since 1996.

On 9 October 2020, Erekat tested positive for COVID-19. He was at high risk for the illness, because he had a lung transplant in 2017.  On 18 October 2020, he was sent to the Israeli Hadassah Ein Karem hospital in Jerusalem in critical condition. Erekat died of complications from COVID-19 on 10 November 2020, aged 65.

References

Category:1955 births
Category:2020 deaths
Category:Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Jerusalem
Category:Palestinian politicians
Category:Palestinian nationalists