Reuters

Saeb Erekat, one of the most experienced and high-profile advocates for the Palestinian cause over decades of dispute with Israel, died yesterday after contracting Covid-19. He was 65.

Having sat down with Israeli and US leaders in the 1990s and 2000s, in recent years Erekat was the principal face of a war of words with President Donald Trump’s administration over a Middle East plan that envisaged leaving Israel in control of Jewish settlements and large parts of the occupied West Bank.

Erekat, the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said on Oct. 8 he had contracted the coronavirus. Three years earlier he had undergone a lung transplant in the US that left his immune system compromised.

He died following multiple organ failure after being hospitalised for three weeks in Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared three days of mourning, calling his death “a big loss for Palestine”.

Tzipi Livni, a former Israeli foreign minister, said he had dedicated his life to his people. “Reaching peace is my destiny he used to say. Being sick, he texted me: ‘I’m not finished with what I was born to do’. My deepest condolences to the Palestinians and his family. He will be missed,” she wrote on Twitter.