Saeb Muhammad Salih Erekat was born on 28 April 1955 in Abu Dis, a Palestinian town on the outskirts of Jerusalem. He held Palestinian citizenship and also carried United States citizenship, and he worked across three languages — Arabic, English, and Hebrew — a range that would prove central to his long career in diplomacy and politics. He studied at San Francisco State University and later at the University of Bradford, building an academic foundation that complemented his work as a diplomat, politician, and journalist.

Erekat took part in early negotiations with Israel, and from 1995 he served as chief negotiator for the Palestine Liberation Organization, a role he held until May 2003. That same month he resigned from the Palestinian government in protest, though he was reappointed to the post just four months later, in September 2003. His work in negotiations placed him at the center of Palestinian diplomatic efforts for much of this period, and he conducted that work while operating across the languages and institutional frameworks that defined the peace process.

Beyond the negotiating table, Erekat held senior organizational positions within the PLO. He served as chief of the PLO Steering and Monitoring Committee until 12 February 2011, and in 2015 he was appointed secretary general of the executive committee of the PLO, a position he held until his death. For his contributions to Palestinian public life, he received the Order of the Star of Honour, awarded by Palestine.

Erekat died on 10 November 2020 in Jerusalem, at the Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital. He was 65 years old. He had spent the final years of his life serving as the PLO's secretary general, a post that placed him at the organizational heart of Palestinian political institutions until the very end.