Saeb Erekat

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Saeb Erekat

Saeb Erakat (Sa’ib Muhammad Salih ‘Urayqat | Arabic: صائب عريقات ; born 1955) was the chief of the PLO Steering and Monitoring Committee, from which he negotiated with Israel regarding the Oslo Accords from 1995 until his resignation in protest from the Palestinian government, in May 2003. He quickly reconciled with his party, and was reappointed to the post in September 2003. [1]

Erekat has participated in numerous peace negotiations with Israel, including Camp David meetings in 2000, and negotiations at Taba in 2001. When Mahmoud Abbas was nominated to serve as Prime Minister of the Palestinian Legislative Council in early 2003, Erekat was slated to be part of the new cabinet and was assigned as the Minister of Negotiations, but he soon resigned after he was not included in a delegation to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

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.

[edit] Controversy over the Battle of Jenin

In April 2002, during the Battle of Jenin, Saeb Erekat repeatedly claimed that "people were massacred. And we say the number will not be less than 500" in the refugee camp of Jenin.[2][3][4] The UN put the final death toll at 52 Palestinians, more than half of them armed fighters, and it concluded that no civilians were killed deliberately. Israeli media leveled the accusation that "the international press prefers hype to facts."[5]