ʻUrayqāt, Ṣāʼib

Saeb Muhammad Salih Erekat (also Erikat, Erakat or Arekat; Arabic: صائب محمد صالح عريقات, romanized: Ṣāʾib ʿUrayqāt, Palestinian Arabic: ʿRēqāt; 28 April 1955 – 10 November 2020) was a Palestinian politician and diplomat who was the secretary general of the executive committee of the PLO from 2015 until his death in 2020. He served as chief of the PLO Steering and Monitoring Committee until 12 February 2011. He participated in early negotiations with Israel and remained chief negotiator from 1995 until May 2003, when he resigned in protest from the Palestinian government. He reconciled with the party and was reappointed to the post in September 2003. Erekat died in the Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital in Jerusalem of complications from COVID-19 on 10 November 2020, at the age of 65.