Maen Rashid Areikat (also spelled as Erikat or Erekat; born October 12, 1960) is a Palestinian diplomat and former chief of the PLO Delegation in Washington DC.
He was born in Jericho and obtained a B.Sc. in finance from Arizona State University in 1983 and MBA from Western International University in 1987.
In 1993-1998 he worked as spokesman of the Orient House, then unofficial PLO headquarters in East Jerusalem. He started working for the Palestinian National Authority in 1998, first at the Negotiations Affairs Department (NAD) while serving as its Director-General until March 2008. In 2008-2009 he served as Coordinator-General of NAD. In May 2009 he was appointed chief of the PLO Delegation to the United States.
In 2011, USA Today published remarks by Areikat made during a meeting with reporters sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, in which he stated that "After the experience of the last 44 years of military occupation and all the conflict and friction, I think it would be in the best interest of the two people to be separated," a statement which was taken by Elliot Abrams to mean the removal of Jews from an independent State of Palestine.[1] The Center for American Progress found Areikat's previous comments to Tablet Magazine also endorsing population transfer[2] to be "troubling" and similar to the views of then-Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman.[3] USA Today noted that Areikat said that "he was referring to Israelis, not Jews."[4] Areikat also subsequently clarified his remarks in a commentary to The Huffington Post, maintaining his support for a secular government but rejecting "persons who are amid an occupation, who are in my land illegally".[5]
References
edit- ^ Oren Dorell (September 18, 2011). "PLO ambassador says Palestinian state should be free of Jews". USA Today.
- ^ David Samuels (October 29, 2010). "Q&A: Maen Rashid Areikat". Tablet Magazine.
- ^ Matt Duss (September 15, 2011). "Areikat's Comments On Jews In Palestine". Middle East Progress, Center for American Progress. Archived from the original on June 16, 2013.
- ^ "PLO ambassador says Palestinian state should be free of Jews". Retrieved 2016-09-17.
- ^ Joshua Hersh (September 14, 2011). "Report Of Palestinian State Free Of Jews Was Misinterpretation, Official Says". The Huffington Post.