Erekat was the face of ’67, and died as idea was revived - analysis
To some Palestinians and as well as some in the international community and on the Israeli Left, he was a figure of unwavering commitment to peace.
By TOVAH LAZAROFFPalestinian Chief negotiator Saeb Erekat holds a map as he speaks to media about the Israeli plan to appropriate land, in Jordan Valley near the West Bank city of Jericho, January 20, 2016(photo credit: REUTERS/MOHAMAD TOROKMAN/FILE PHOTO)
For years he had seemed like the last man standing, a Palestinian negotiator without a peace table, in a process that was stuck in an endless frozen winter.PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, who died Tuesday of COVID-19, was not the only Palestinian who supported a two-state resolution to the conflict at the pre-1967 lines or who feared that a one-state resolution would follow in its absence.But for the English-speaking world, he was one of its most consistent and vocal advocates. It was not just that he spoke so passionately and well, but his historic role as a negotiator in every peace process from Madrid to Oslo to Annapolis and onward to PA talks with the Trump administration.“You remained convinced that #Israel and #Palestine can live in #peace; never gave up on negotiations; and stood proudly for your people!” tweeted UN Mideast envoys Nickolay Mladenov.To some Israelis on the Right, he represented the worst of Palestinian intransigence because of his deep refusal to engage in any peace process that did not involve the complete withdrawal of Israel to the pre-1967 lines; which for them was an existential threat.For Erekat, anything less was also an existential threat, and refusal to meet that request meant a lack of commitment for peace.He often said all Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needed to do for peace was to utter four numbers: 1-9-6-7.To some Palestinians and as well as some in the international community and on the Israeli Left, he was a figure of unwavering commitment to peace.Erekat described himself as a person who left no stone unturned on this score.“I have done everything possible to make peace,” Erekat told Tim Sebastian on Deutsche Welle’s Conflict Zone program.
Sam Bahour, a Palestinian-American business consultant based in Ramallah, said he was “steadfast” and “tireless” in making the Palestinian case on the international stage.“He will be remembered as the first key Palestinian negotiator,” said Hebrew University lecturer Dikla Cohen, who added that it is a question mark now as to who will do his job.Former US negotiator Aaron David Miller, who had known Erekat since the Madrid process, said “of all the Palestinians that we dealt with, Saeb was more committed to building relations with Israelis and to finding solution to the conflict” and the most skilled in drafting language for an agreement.“We annoyed the hell out of each other,” Miller said, “because he was also extremely willful and stubborn. Many of the Israelis did not like him for things that he said, some accused him of incitement. His own colleagues described him as Mr. CNN.“The full measure of Saeb has to be seen through his commitment and resilience in maintaining, when most of us didn’t see much prospect in anything that remotely resembled the two-state solution,” Miller said.Erekat held on to those beliefs even as the Trump administration promoted a peace plan that ignored the pre-1967 lines, and key Arab allies, such as the UAE and Bahrain appeared to abandon the Palestinian cause in favor of normalization deals with Israel.Then he died, just as it appeared that the entry of President-elect Joe Biden to the White House could mark the revival of the ’67 lines.
