Thread by @YairWallach

My Saeb Erekat story.
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In December 1998 I was a subtitles translator in the Israeli TV news department (channel one). Bill Clinton arrived to Israel (4th visit) and for the first ever presidential visit to the Palestinian Authority. Very busy 3-4 days 1/

Clinton's Gaza itinerary included meeting kids whose fathers were in Israeli prisons. Saeb Erekat did the simultaneous translation for the President. One boy (8yr?) recounted some bare details about his story. The boy was shy and subdued. 2/

Erikat translated the child's sad factual account and then added "we just want peace now". Which the child didn't say. I remember staring at the screen with amused admiration. Erikat's quickness of improvisation, the moulding of a feel-good Hollywood monologue 3/

He knew what Clinton wanted to hear and he gave it to him. Damn, I wish I was as fast thinking on my feet. I guess that's what makes good lawyers.

I translated the kid's Arabic, I translated Erekat's English, I didn't make too much of it. 4/

Then it turns out the competing channel 2 did make a big deal of it. Shock horror! Erekat polishing reality to make Palestinians look good! He's inventing stuff up, adding words! With the subtext, see why we can't trust them, they don't really want peace etc etc. 5/

Erekat could have said that, well, this was not a literal translation, but it was very much the spirit of things. The boy wanted his dad back, and that meant peace. 6/

This episode sank quickly into the great ocean of Israel-Palestine bad faith accusations. The Israeli right wing was more interested in lambasting Clinton for comparing children of "terrorists" to children of Israeli casualties. 7/

I go back in my mind to that kid, who was put in that position, to be a metaphor, with his dad in prison, to be the promise of closure, he has to give a cheesy "we just want peace" soundbite, which never occurred to him. And why would it. He just wanted his dad back 6/

It's for Palestinians to decide what to make of his legacy. To me, Erekat always seemed to me like a pretty sharp+quick lawyer, trying to make the most of bad situations. E.g. when Olmert showed them his offered map in 2007, and Erekat took a sneaky picture on his phone. 8/

Erekat would probably have done a better job negotiating the initial 1993 Oslo framework. Beyond that, it's clear that even the shrewdest lawyer was never going to be sufficient to save the situation. /end

So this is from @DrAlijla who was was there! And apparently "we want peace" was part of the script

https://twitter.com/DrAlijla/status/1326193159060254720?s=20