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PLO Secretary General Erekat contracts COVID-19

October 10, 2020 at 2:34 pm

Saeb Erekat, Former Secretary-General of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and chief Palestinian negotiator [ABBAS MOMANI/AFP via Getty Images]

Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO)’s Executive Committee Saeb Erekat has contracted COVID-19 and has been rushed to hospital for treatment, a PLO statement announced on Friday morning.

The statement, which was posted on Erekat’s Twitter account, apologised for cancelling all appointments until his recovery.

The statement of the PLO’s Executive Committee and Negotiations Department announced that Erekat had caught COVID-19 and expressed hope for his “speedy recovery”.

Erekat has had a lung transplant in the US and was set to leave for Jordan on Saturday for medical treatment.

Erekat was born in 1955 in Abu Dis and holds a PhD in Peace Studies. He was the minister of local governance in the first Palestinian Authority government.

In 2009, he was elected member of Fatah’s Central Committee and member of the PLO’s Executive Committee, and was later nominated its Secretary General by the PLO President Mahmoud Abbas.

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