The death of Saeb Erekat has dealt a blow to Israel's public diplomacy, as he was a prominent asset to anyone who considers Judea and Samaria pivotal to the Jewish people's revival in their ancestral homeland.
The chief Palestinian negotiator was an authentic enemy. He didn't hide behind masks nor did he mince his words. He openly stated what other Palestinian leaders dared not say and vowed to the world that "the Palestinians will never accept Israel as a Jewish state." He believed that this demand was "ridiculous" and "contrary to international law"; he demanded the actual realization of the so-called "right of return" to Israeli territories within the Green Line, and he even came up with the fictional figure of 7 million as the number of Palestinian refugees living around the world.
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Erekat also glorified Palestinian terrorists as "martyrs" and wrote letters praising their acts, including to the terrorist who assassinated Minister Rehavam Ze'evi in 2001. He made it a point to pay condolence visits to the families of terrorist killed or injured while committing attacks against Israelis; and was a driving force in spreading blood libel against the IDF and Israel over the battle of Jenin – one of the fiercest battles Israeli troops waged during 2002's Operation Defensive Shield – alleging Israel committed a "massacre" in the city, notorious for being a hub of terrorist activity.
More than anything, however, his "contribution" to Israeli public diplomacy will be remembered thanks to the historical fabrications with which his prolific mind came up, and in which he probably believed with all his heart.
Erekat denied the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount, and once even claimed that the Temple actually stood in Nablus. He alleged that his ancient Canaanite ancestors lived in Jericho 3,000 years before Joshua led the Israelites to the city, and professed with equal conviction that "Jesus was the first Palestinian martyr."
He ignored the fact that the term "Palestine" first appeared in history when the Romans changed the name of the Judean district to Syria-Palestine, as means of penalizing the Jews after the Bar Kokhba revolt – some 130 years after the birth of Jesus. This means that from a chronological and historical viewpoint it is impossible to juxtapose the terms "Jesus" and "Palestinian."
Renowned British historical sociologist Anthony Smith, who was an expert on nationalism and ethnicity, once distinguished between two types of principles at the heart of the national identity: the first – nations the core of which is based on culture and history, and the second – nations without such a nucleus, which must reinvent everything. Professor Yitzhak Reiter, an expert on Islamic, Middle East and Israel studies, once explained in this context that history is not always accurate and in extreme cases, it is even completely fictional.
Saeb Erekat apparently subscribed to the latter – and in the extreme. He was a loyal advocate of the invented Palestinian narrative and almost always preferred to stand by his truth. Israel "enjoyed" having a tough ideological adversary – one who was much more convenient for it than other Palestinian rivals who, for tactical reasons, leave far more to guesswork.
One can only hope, for Israel's sake, that the Palestinians will change someday.In the meantime, we can only hope that they will find a suitable replacement for Erekat.
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