The Last Negotiator: The Death of Saeb Erekat Could Mark the End of
Palestinian Reconciliation
Saeb Erekat was one of the last of a generation of Palestinian negotiators
inspired by the conciliatory style of Yasser Arafat. His death may be the
end of an era of hope that a peaceful solution with Israel is possible.
by Miko Peled
November 19th, 2020
By Miko Peled
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The untimely passing of Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat marks the end of
not only a period, but of a generation. Almost 14 years to the day after the
death of Yasser Arafat, Erekat succumbed to complications from Covid-19, and
it is remarkable to see that even though so many years have passed since
Arafat's death, there are still serious people who, like Erekat, hold on to
the belief that a negotiated settlement with Israel is possible, and that a
Two-State Solution is viable.
Unlike Arafat, who started his career as a leader of the Palestinian
Liberation Organization promoting "radical" ideas, like the liberation of
Palestine and freedom for the Palestinian people, Erikat's career began in
what may be considered the final chapter of the PLO. That chapter was marked
by negotiation upon negotiation with the hope, unrealistic as it may have
been, of reaching a negotiated peace agreement with the Israeli government.
I never met Saeb Erekat, but I know many people like him who, even today,
hold on to the belief that Palestinians must never stop negotiating. The
belief that cooperation and even collaboration with Israel are critical so
that someday a Palestinian state can exist alongside Israel.
Yasser Arafat: A leader of transformation
For three decades, from the mid-1970s to the day he died in 2004 - Yasser
Arafat was the most consistent voice for peace in the Middle East. When he
spoke at the United Nations in 1974, he said, "I come with an olive branch
in one hand and a gun in the other," and added, "Do not let the olive branch
fall from my hand." Arafat let go of the gun and held on to that olive
branch for the rest of his life.
Under his leadership, the Palestinian national movement went from calling
for the total liberation of Palestine through a military struggle, to a
binational secular democratic state spanning all of Palestine, and from
there, to recognizing Israel and denouncing "terrorism."
Arafat eventually accepted whatever part of Palestine that was made
available for his people on the basis of a Two-State Solution and finally
signed the Oslo Accords, which led to nothing but more suffering for
Palestinians and more control for Israel. The suffering and violent takeover
by Israel was not new of course, only this time it had Arafat's signature on
it. From decade to decade, starting in the 1960s, the Palestinian leadership
went from revolutionary to accommodating and to what some would say,
collaborating. All under the leadership of the same man, Yasser Arafat.
Appearing on the world stage
The first time Yasser Arafat was introduced to the world was in a Time
magazine cover story. It was the December 13, 1968 issue, and it featured a
dramatic rendition of Arafat on the cover and an armed Palestinian fighter
in the background. Arafat was described as "Fedayeen Leader" and the caption
across the top read, "The Arab Commandos, a Defiant New Force in the Middle
East."
Time Magazine Yasser Arafat Cover
Time's December 1968 cover launched Arafat into the international spotlight
The piece began as follows, "The revolution of Fatah exists! It exists here,
there and everywhere. It is a storm, a storm in every house and village."
The article quoted from the "Voice of El-Fatah" radio. It went on to
describe it.
Faithful and unfailing as the muezzin's call from the minaret, that heady
cry goes out nightly from a radio station in Cairo to the Arab lands. It is
the "Voice of El Fatah," speaking for the Arab commando organization whose
bands of raiders cross each night into hated Israel, bent on bringing death,
destruction and terror. To Arabs huddled in wind-chilling refugee tents
outside Amman, sipping thick coffee in drawing rooms in Damascus, or
lounging in the common rooms of the American University of Beirut."
Arafat made it to the cover of Time largely because of the fame that
followed the Battle of Karama. It was in May of 1968 that Israel decided to
invade Jordan and punish the Palestinian fighters in the village of Karama,
which incidentally means dignity in Arabic. The "El-Fatah" forces had been
quite literally terrifying Israel. Every Israeli, even children, became
aware of the dangers of what we knew as "Al-Fatah" and "Fedayeen."
I describe the battle and the precise force that Israel mobilized for this
invasion in my book, "The General Son." For now, suffice it to say that it
was an enormous, cumbersome force that turned out to be as clumsy as it was
bulky. The operation included ground and air, commando and paratrooper as
well as tank divisions. The tanks got stuck in the mud and the whole thing
was a terrible blunder with the Israeli forces being humiliated and paying a
heavy price.
Although Palestinian and Jordanian forces also paid a heavy price, they saw
the previously victorious Israeli army leave with its tail between its legs.
The Battle of Karama came to be known as a military victory and a morale
boost for all Arabs, but none more than the Palestinians with Yasser Arafat
as their leader. Arafat was based in Karama, and his forces prevailed. It
was in the aftermath of Karama that his name appeared to the outside world.
UN General Assembly, 1974
In his first appearance in front of the UN General Assembly in 1974, Arafat
stood wearing his famous Keffiyeh and carrying a pistol. Not unlike Che
Guevara and other revolutionaries who spoke at the UN, Arafat spoke as a
true revolutionary. He spoke not only about the plight of his own people but
of that of other nations who suffered the indignation and oppression of
imperialism and settler colonialism. He spoke harshly and truthfully about
Zionism, about the racism and violence that it brought to his land and his
people:
Just as colonialists in Africa used religion, color, race, and language to
justify exploitation and cruel subjugation, so too are these methods
employed in Palestine.
Zionism is an ideology that is imperialist, colonialist, racist.
It pains our people greatly to witness the propagation of the myth that its
homeland was a desert until it was made to bloom by foreign settlers, that
it was a land without a people, and that the colonialist entity caused no
harm.
Those who call us terrorists wish to prevent world public opinion from
discovering the truth about us. They seek to hide the terrorism and tyranny
of their own acts.
When we speak of our hopes for the Palestine of tomorrow we include all Jews
now living in Palestine who choose to live with us in peace and without
discrimination.
I call upon Jews to turn away one by one from the illusory promises made to
them by Zionist ideology and Israeli leadership. They are offering Jews
perpetual bloodshed, endless war.
We offer them the most generous solution, that we might live together in a
framework of just peace in our democratic Palestine."
He ended his speech with the words, "I have come bearing an olive branch and
a freedom fighter's gun. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand. I
repeat: do not let the olive branch fall from my hand."
As Arafat was making this speech, his top emissaries in Europe were making
contacts with renegade Israeli figures like my father, Matti Peled, at that
point a retired Israeli general, and Uri Avneri, a veteran of the 1948 war
and a journalist. Although both of them had come out criticizing Israel for
its treatment of the Palestinian people and called for an end to the
occupation of 1967, both were staunch and patriotic Zionists.
Connecting with Avneri and my father marked a departure from the previous
PLO policy of dealing only with anti-Zionist elements in Israel. It clearly
demonstrated a shift in thinking at the highest echelons of PLO leadership.
The contacts between Zionist Israelis and top PLO diplomats like Sa'id
Hamami in London and Issam Sartawi in Paris, both of whom were consequently
assassinated, took place under the auspices and full support of several
notable figures. These included the former German Chancellor Willy Brandt,
Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky, King Hassan II of Morocco as well as
non-governmental groups like the Quakers and particularly individuals like
Landrum Bolling.
From the Israeli perspective, the purpose of these meetings was twofold: To
legitimize the PLO in the eyes of Israeli public opinion - in which they
failed - and to convince Yassar Arafat to recognize Israel and accept the
Two-State Solution. The latter objective succeeded but proved catastrophic
for the Palestinian people.
A shift
In 1988 Arafat was once again invited to speak at the United Nations General
Assembly. However, as a result of Israeli pressure, the Regan-Bush
administration did not grant him entry into the United States and the
General Assembly had to meet in Geneva instead. The 1988 speech that Arafat
gave was very different from his 1974 speech.
Clinton Arafat Erekat
Bill Clinton meets with Arafat and Erekat, center, at Camp David, July 14,
2000. Photo | Reuters
By 1988, Arafat had taken a new position on Israel and the recognition of
the Zionist State was integral to his speech. No more revolutionary.
Instead, appeasing. It was about asking for negotiations and peace rather
than justice and an end to racism and settler colonialism.
I have come to you in the name of my people, offering my hand so that we can
make real peace. On that basis I ask the leaders of Israel to come here,
under the sponsorship of the United Nations, so that together we can forge
that peace.
Our people, who seek dignity, freedom and peace for themselves and security
for their State, want the same thing for all the States and parties involved
in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Here, I would address myself specifically to the Israeli people
Let us make the peace of the bold, of the courageous,
I have come to you in the name of my people, offering my hand so that we can
make real peace, peace based on justice."
Talk of peace with Israel replaced freeing Palestine from Israel.
Till when?
As these words are being written, the Palestinian Authority reportedly
announced its willingness to resume military and civilian coordination with
Israel. If there is any criticism today towards the generation of
negotiators comprised of people who, like Saeb Erikat, believed that
negotiating and talking was the only way forward, it is that they didn't
know when to stop. Missing what became obvious to many, that three decades
of Palestinian concessions were only making things worse for the
Palestinians.
Once the PLO committed to the Two-State Solution, it held on to it and, in
fact, continues to hold on to it today. For decades, Israel claimed that the
Palestinians were using the Two-State Solution as a stepping stone to
replacing Israel through the creation of a Palestinian state on all of
historic Palestine. But that is little more than what some would call
"projecting."
It was Israel who used the endless and fruitless negotiations as a tool by
which to take more and more Palestinian land, to "Judaise," as they call it,
more and more of Palestine, and to complete its plan of ethnic cleansing,
genocide, and deepening of the apartheid regime.
One grieves the loss of a dedicated man like Saeb Erekat, and one grieves
even more that Palestine is disappearing before our very eyes.
In his 1974 speech at the United Nations Yasser Arafat warned the world not
to let the olive branch fall from his hand. The truth is that he himself
held on to the olive branch with such ferocity that one might say it cost
him his own life.
