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Saeb Erekat

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Saeb Erekat

Saeb Erakat (Sa'ib Muhammad Salih 'Urayqat. Template:Lang-ar, 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.

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.

Saeb Erekat is currently part of the Israeli-Fatah negotiations team and is working to add Palestine next to Israel on the map in peace.

Battle of Jenin controversy

Main article: Battle of Jenin

In April 2002, during the Battle of Jenin, Palestinian representatives, Saeb Erekat being one of the most prominent among them, repeatedly claimed claimed that the Israeli army had indiscriminately massacred at least 500 Palestinian civilians in the refugee camp of Jenin. As the dust settled it became clear that no such massacre had happened.

Statements by Amnesty and Human Rights Watch say there was no evidence of a massacre, and Palestinian Fatah investigators claimed the death toll is 56, announced by Qadoura Mousa, the Fatah director for the Northern West Bank. The UN put the final death toll at approx. 52 Palestinians, more than half of them armed fighters, and it concluded that there was a battle rather than a massacre as the Palestinians had charged; Israel lost 23 men.

Israeli media leveled the accusation that "the international press prefers hype to facts."

Example statements about the fighting

In the April 10, 2002 interview with CNN's Bill Hemmer, Erekat said: "I'm afraid to say that the number of Palestinian dead in the Israeli attacks have reached more than 500 now. And I think the number may increase once we discover the extent of the damage and the massacres committed in -- particularly in the Jenin refugee camp and in the whole city of Nablus."

On April 12, he repeated the charge on CNN: "a real massacre was committed in the Jenin refugee camp." He added that 300 Palestinians were being buried in mass graves."

On April 15, Erakat continued his charges: "And I stand by the term 'massacres' were committed in the refugee camps." He also began to refer to Israeli actions as "war crimes."

On April 17 Erekat stated on CNN that 500 Palestinians had been killed in Jenin. He suggested to Wolf Blitzer that, "How about if we form an international commission of inquiry, let them go to Jenin with the equipment needed ... to get the results and to decide how many people were massacred. And we say the number will not be less than 500."

See also

References

  1. Profile: Saeb Erakat BBC News, 4 September 2003
  2. Q & A with Saeb Erekat Jerusalem Post, 1 February 2005
  3. 'Jenin "massacre" reduced to death toll of 56' by Paul Martin, Washington Times (host site) (mirror host)
  4. UN Report on Jenin (Source PDF) - Pg 11-12, Para 52-53, 56-57
  5. 'Jenin massacre syndrome' by Sever Plocker (Yedioth Ahronoth)
  6. CNN Transcripts: 'Secretary Powell Leaves Middle East Empty Handed; Palestinians Remain Under Israeli Siege'

External links

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