Zehdi Labib Terzi

Zehdi Labib Terzi (born February 20, 1924 in Jerusalem , Palestine , † March 1, 2006 in Amman , Jordan ), Arabic زهدي لبيب ترزي, DMG Zuhdī Labīb Tarazī , was a Palestinian politician and between 1974 and 1991 the first head of the PLO delegation with observer status at the United Nations .

Life

Zehdi Terzi grew up as the son of Greek Orthodox parents in Jerusalem and attended the Terra Sancta School in today's Rechavia district . He left the city after conflicts with the Jordanian authorities who administered East Jerusalem after the Palestine War. As a personal confidante of Yasser Arafat , he rose quickly after the PLO was founded in 1964 and initially represented the organization as ambassador to Brazil . He accompanied Arafat on November 13, 1974 to his historic appearance at the UN General Assembly and, after being granted observer status to the PLO as the political representative of the Palestinians, became head of its delegation in New York .

Terzi used his position to strengthen the Palestinian presence at the United Nations through various UN resolutions , and thereby laid the foundation for later diplomatic initiatives of the PLO. He initiated the Geneva Middle East Conference held in 1973 and in 1979 met the US Ambassador to the United Nations, Andrew Young , for secret negotiations. Young was forced to resign after the meeting became known. In 1991 he left his office to his previous deputy, Nasser al-Kidwa, and has since been a personal advisor to Arafat in Tunis .

Terzi has been married since 1960 and has two children. He died in Amman in 2006 after a serious illness and was buried in New Jersey next to his wife, who died in 1987.

Web links

• The PLO's influential voice at the UN , The New York Times , September 16, 1984
• Zehdi Terzi: First PLO representative to the UN , The Independent , March 7, 2006

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Report on Zeit.de (accessed on September 3, 2013)
2. ↑ Report on spiegel.de (accessed on September 3, 2013)