Palestinian Official Dies in Israeli Hospital he Demanded Others Boycott

Former Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat died of coronavirus after seeking Israeli medical care, despite helping ban access to the same care for regular Palestinians.

By Yakir Benzion, United With Israel

Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat died of complications from coronavirus Tuesday while being treated in Jerusalem’s Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital.

Known for his vehement anti-Israel rhetoric in the media, Erekat, 65, was transferred to the hospital on October 18. He “received intensive treatments that included a heart lung machine and drug treatments provided by Hadassah’s top specialists,” Hadassah spokeswoman Hadar Elboim said.

Erekat’s passing received wide coverage in the media, some of it glowing, despite the fact that he was a senior member of the corrupt Palestinian Authority.

“There is no reason in the world to mourn the death of Saeb Erekat,” Maurice Hirsch, director of Legal Strategies at leading Israeli media watchdog Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), told United With Israel.

“While pretending in English to engage in peacemaking, in reality, in Arabic, he was a rabid supporter of terror who excelled in rewriting history to support his goal of destroying Israel,” said Hirsch, whose organization monitors Palestinian media and translates it from Arabic to English.

“When it suited Erekat, ‘normalization’ with Israel was a stab in the back of the Palestinians. But when he himself was in need of urgent medical treatment, he saw no obstacle to being treated in an Israeli hospital, with Israeli equipment and by Israeli doctors,” Hirsch said.

Furious over pending peace agreements with Arab states and fearing that Israel would extend sovereignty over Judea and Samaria earlier this year, the Palestinian Authority cut off all ties with Israel, depriving thousands of ordinary Palestinians from receiving medical care at Israeli hospitals like Hadassah.

“I wish you would care about the health of the people the way you care about yourselves,” a Palestinian named Aseel Jadallah commented on the Palestinian Ministry of Health Facebook page.

Hirsch dismissed those who eulogized Erekat as a peacemaker, saying he had been an obstacle to progress in the peace process.

“His double-tongued approach to ‘peace’ and Israeli-Palestinian relations meant that his real contribution to the Middle East peace process was insignificant. In fact, the Israeli-Palestinian peace is closer in his absence,” Hirsch said.