Saeb Erekat

Saeb Erakat (also: 'Saib', 'Erakat') (Full name: Sa'ib Muhammad Salih 'Urayqat. _ar. صائب عريقات), (born April 28 1955 in Jerusalem) [http://www.jmcc.org/politics/pna/newemerggov03.htm 'Politics in Palestine', Palestinian National Authority: The PA Ministerial Cabinet List, Emergency Cabinet, October 2003 - November 2003] , Jerusalem Media and Communication Centre.] [http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/palestine/saeb_erekat.htm 'Saeb Erekat'] , GlobalSecurity.org] 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 East Jerusalem, into a Muslim family, then under Jordanian occupation. He is married with twin daughters and two sons.

Education and professional life

Erekat received a BA and MA in Political Science at San Francisco State University (United States) and completed his Ph.D. in Peace and conflict studies at Bradford University (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 Al-Quds, the most circulated Palestinian newspaper.

He also served as secretary general of the Arab Studies Society.

Chief Negotiator

Erekat has been at the center of negotiations with Israel for over a decade and participated in numerous peace conferences. He was deputy head of the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid Conference in 1991 and the 1992-1993 follow-up talks in Washington. In 1994, Erekat was appointed the Chairman of the Palestinian negotiation delegation and 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 English interpreter. 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. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3033601.stm 'Profile: Saeb Erakat'] , BBC News, September 4, 2003.] [ [http://info.jpost.com/C004/QandA/qa.erekat.01.html 'Q & A with Saeb Erekat'] , The Jerusalem Post, February 1, 2005.] 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. [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/928784.html 'Annapolis joint statement was completed with just minutes to spare' by Avi Issacharoff and Barak Ravid] , Haaretz, November 28, 2007.]

Political career

Erekat was appointed Minister of Local Government for the Palestinian Authority (PA) in 1994. He was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council in 1996, representing Jericho. As a politician, Erekat was considered to be a Yasser Arafat loyalist.

Erekat was also, along with Arafat and Faisal Husseini, one of the three high-ranking Palestinians who asked Ariel Sharon not to visit the Al-Aqsa Mosque in September 2002 [Menachem Klein, "The Jerusalem Problem: The Struggle for Permanent Status", University Press of Florida, 2003 p.98] , an event which sparked off the Second Intifada.

Publications

Erekat has authored eight books and numerous research papers on foreign policy, oil and conflict resolution.

Media Profile

Erekat is one of the more prominent Palestinian spokespeople in the Western media. [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9805EFDD143EF934A25756C0A9659C8B63 Top Palestinian Negotiator Offers to Quit on Eve of Talks - New York Times ] ] He was criticised by some commentators who alleged that he inflated Palestinian casualty figures during the IDF's 2002 assault in the Palestinian town of Jenin, and that he characterized the operation as a massacre. [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/apr/19/israel Army denies frenzy of destruction in Jenin | World news | The Guardian ] ] In an interview with Israeli Army Radio ahead of the Annapolis summit in 2007, he rejected demands that Palestinians should recognise Israel's status as a Jewish state. [ [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/923076.html Erekat: Palestinians will not accept Israel as 'Jewish state' - Haaretz - Israel News ] ]

ee also

*Arab-Israeli conflict
*Israeli-Palestinian conflict

References

External links

* [http://www.sfsu.edu/%7Esfsumag/archive/fall_winter_03/peace.html San Francisco State University magazine interview with Saeb Erekat]
* [http://www.un.org/peace/jenin/ UN Jenin reports]
* [http://www.jcpa.org/art/brief1-22.htm JCPA Issue Brief]
* [http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=7&x_issue=14&x_article=217 CAMERA collection of accusations and quotes by palestinians regarding the Jenin raid]
* [http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article499.shtml EI: Media Distortions and the UN Report on Jenin]