Former Palestinian negotiator Shafi dies of cancer in Gaza Strip - Haaretz

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Last update - 09:13 25/09/2007

Former Palestinian negotiator Shafi dies of cancer in Gaza Strip

By The Associated Press

A former Palestinian negotiator, leading Palestinian nationalist and physician, Haidar Abdel Shafi, died Tuesday in the Gaza Strip. He was
88.

Shafi died at his home in Gaza City of stomach cancer, said his son Khaled.

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The gadfly to the late Yasser Arafat was most known internationally for leading the Palestinian team with Jordan to the Madrid Peace Conference in 1991 and to peace talks in Washington in the two years following.

Shafi resigned his negotiating post in 1993 over the Oslo peace agreements with Israel and was known as a die-hard critic of Arafat and his concessions to the Israelis in peace talks.

In April 1996, Shafi walked out of a meeting of the Palestinian Legislative Council of which he was a member to protest Arafat's decision to amend the charter of the Palestine Liberation Organization to recognize Israel when the Jewish state did not give reciprocal recognition. He resigned from the council in 1998, saying it did not have enough teeth to effect real change.

Shafi was born in the Gaza Strip in 1919 and studied medicine at the American University in Beirut, Lebanon. It was there that he began his political activity with Arab nationalists aiming to establish a Palestinian state. He returned to the Gaza Strip and, during fighting that lead to Israel's founding in 1948, helped facilitate medical care for tens of thousands of Palestinians who fled the hostilities. In the early 1950s he studied surgery at the Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, Ohio.

Shafi began his political service to his people in the early 1960s and in 1964 was a member of the first all-Palestinian conference that established the PLO in Jerusalem. By 1966 he was the leading PLO figure in the Gaza Strip and was detained and deported by Israel when its forces occupied the coastal territory in 1967. In 1971 he returned to Gaza and a year later founded the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, a role that earned him great respect among Gazans.

Shafi's funeral was slated to take place Tuesday in Gaza City. He was survived by his wife, four children and eight grandchildren

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1.	A great loss!	09:46	\|	Palestinian	25/09/07

2.	Dayyan Emet?	11:45	\|	Dr. Robert Frosh	25/09/07

3.	Farewell, Dr Haidar, your wisdom will be greatly missed	12:08	\|	Ben Alofs	25/09/07

4.	#Robert Frosh... WHAT WERE YOU TRYING TO SAY????	12:10	\|	ME Observer	25/09/07

5.	Nasty Doctor	12:13	\|	Patient	25/09/07

6.	#2 It is obvious you did not know Haidar Abdel-Shafi	12:19	\|	Ben Alofs	25/09/07

7.	to # 2 Dr. Frosh	13:12	\|	Steve the Pals.	25/09/07

8.	Ben Alfs has chickened out and doesn`t dare to travel to the lair	14:02	\|	Absolute Sweden	25/09/07

9.	Where is Sharon?	14:28	\|	marc	25/09/07

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