[Gulf News] Shafik Al Hout, a close aide to Yasser Arafat who fell out with the late Palestinian leader over the 1993 peace accords with Israel, died in Beirut on Sunday. He was 77. A statement released by the Palestinian Authority's representative office in Beirut did not give the cause of Al Hout's death but an official at the office reached by telephone said he died of cancer at the American University hospital on Sunday morning. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to release the information to the media.Al Hout, a founding member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, resigned from the PLO in 1993 in protest against the Palestinian-Israeli agreements.
Born in the Palestinian city of Jaffa on January 13, 1932, Al Hout emigrated with his family to Lebanon in 1948 following the creation of Israel, according to the Palestinian statement. After graduating from the American University of Beirut in 1953, Al Hout worked as a schoolteacher in Beirut before moving to teach in Kuwait. He later returned to Lebanon where he worked as a journalist. He authored several books in Arabic on the Palestinian issue. Al Hout served as the PLO's official spokesman between 1974 until 1992 and was a longtime PLO representative in Beirut.
He will be buried at a Palestinian cemetery in Beirut today. Al Hout is survived by a son, Hader, and two daughters, Hanin and Syrine.