Ahmed Qurei, a former Paleostinian Authority prime minister and one of the architects of interim peace deals with Israel, has died at age 85.
A key player in the 1993 Oslo peace accords, Qurei witnessed the rise of the dream of Paleostinian statehood that surged during the negotiations. But he also saw those hopes recede, with the prospect of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Paleostinian conflict drifting further than ever. Domestically, Qurei was riddled with corruption charges that tainted his reputation.
Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....confirmed Qurei’s death on Wednesday. The cause of death was not immediately made public, but Qurei had been ill for some time with a heart condition.
"Abu Alaa stood in the lead defending the causes of his home and people," Abbas said in a statement carried by the official Wafa news agency, using Qurei’s nickname.
Israel’s former foreign minister Tzipi Livni, who in 2013-2014 was also minister in charge of negotiations with the Paleostinians, tweeted her condolences to Qurei’s family.
"I was sad to hear about the passing away of Ahmed Qurei," she wrote. "Together we’ve tried to bring peace to our peoples in an understanding that it’s our responsibility to make a better future for our children."
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Former Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei died in hospital in Ramallah yesterday. He was 85 years old. pic.twitter.com/2yAN9UD9km
— Al-Estiklal English (@alestiklalen) February 23, 2023