Erekat, who underwent a lung transplant in 2014 due to illness, contracted the virus about a month ago • He was hospitalized for medical treatment at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital, which provoked much outrage in Israel • He is considered one of the eloquent spokesmen for the PLO, and headed the Palestinian delegation for peace talks In Oslo
PLO Secretary, Saeb Erekat // Photo: EPI
The secretary of the PLO organization and the head of the negotiating team with Israel, Saeb Muhammad Salih Erekat, died today (Tuesday) after a battle with coronary heart disease at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem.
Palestinian media that the senior's condition is "critical" after a continuing deterioration in his condition.
The senior Palestinian has a medical history that put him in a risk group for the corona virus.
Erekat underwent a lung transplant in 2014 after suffering from pulmonary fibrosis.
In 2012, Erekat had a heart attack.
Erekat, 65 at the time of his death, was born in 1955 in Abu Dis, then under Jordanian rule.
As a teenager he excelled in his studies and was marked from a young age for higher education.
In 1972 he went to study in San Francisco, where he studied for two years at a community college and then for four years at the University of San Francisco.
Erekat completed a doctorate in peace studies and conflict resolution at Bedford University in the United Kingdom in 1983 and received a teaching position at a-Najah University in Nablus.
Erekat came into the spotlight in 1991 when he headed the Palestinian delegation, although he was not officially a member of the PLO, for peace talks with Israel in Madrid.
Erekat then headed the Palestinian delegation to the peace talks in Oslo and was the architect of the agreement that led to the birth of the Palestinian Authority in 1995. Erekat also attended the failed peace conference at Camp David in 200 and accused Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak of crushing the peace process.
Erekat received harsh criticism in Israel and the United States after during the second intifada he accused Israel of committing massacres and crimes against humanity in the Jenin refugee camp and claimed that Israel massacred more than 500 civilians during the operation in the refugee camp.
It later emerged that 56 Palestinians had been killed, the vast majority of them armed terrorists.