ALI HALIMEH:ALI HALIMEH, who served as delegate general of Palestine in Ireland from 2001-2005, was one of the most effective diplomats ever assigned to this State. Despite continuing health problems, he worked tirelessly to promote the Palestinian cause and did so with great effect.
His combination of social skills and acute political intelligence stood him in good stead as he worked the political and diplomatic scene in Dublin. A phone conversation with a contact was rarely enough – his catch-cry was, “When are we meeting?” and he would insist on a face-to-face encounter where he pressed his case further.
Ireland is probably the most sympathetic of the EU member-states to the Palestinians and Halimeh developed a wide range of contacts in political circles during his four years here.
He was fortunate that then-minister for foreign affairs Brian Cowen was keenly interested in the Israeli-Palestinian situation and he praised Cowen for having the courage to raise the plight of the Palestinians in forceful terms with then-US secretary of state Colin Powell, when other foreign ministers bit their tongues.
Halimeh had a good understanding of the news media and was instrumental in securing an exclusive interview for this newspaper with Yasser Arafat at the PLO leader’s compound in Ramallah on St Patrick’s Day 2002.
Ali Ahmed Halimeh was born on April 4th, 1953, in the Lebanese city of Tyre, to a family that had fled from Tarshiha, near Haifa, during what Palestinians call the Nakba (disaster) of the establishment of the Israeli State in 1948.
After the Oslo peace agreement of 1993, he was able to visit his homeland for the first time and called to the door of the family home, but the Israeli residents did not invite him in.
He was brought up in the Burj el-Barajneh refugee camp in Beirut and was conferred with a bachelor’s degree in Arabic literature at Beirut Arab University in 1976.
In 1969, at the age of 16, he joined the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, better-known as “Fatah”, the largest faction of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).
He witnessed some of the most difficult times in the history of the PLO and Fatah movement during the Lebanese civil war and Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982.
He became a protege of Arafat’s, who put him in charge of receiving the displaced families who fled the Tel el-Zaatar massacre of Palestinians in Lebanon in 1976, giving aid to the wounded and the relatives of those who were killed.
His first diplomatic assignment was on the staff of the Palestinian mission to Tanzania, in 1977 at a time when Dar es Salaam was a hotbed of revolutionary activity, with organisations from many countries having a presence there.
He was then nominated by Arafat to establish the first Palestinian embassy in Zimbabwe in 1983. He spent 18 years there, becoming dean of the diplomatic corps in 1989. He was a key link-man between the PLO and the African National Congress as the latter struggled to overthrow the apartheid regime.
Halimeh did not share the consensus view of Robert Mugabe and he supported the principle behind the latter’s efforts to redistribute land to the black population. They had a close political relationship and the Zimbabwe president said Halimeh “leaves behind a legacy of commitment and loyalty to his people’s revolution”.
In 2001, Halimeh was appointed delegate general of the State of Palestine to Ireland (de facto ambassador), following the sudden death of his predecessor, Yusuf Allan.
From 2006 onwards, he was stationed in Pretoria as ambassador to South Africa. President Jacob Zuma said on the news of his death: “The South African government has learnt with shock and sadness the news of the passing-on of Ambassador Ali Halimeh over the weekend in Pretoria.”
The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign praised him for the fact that, despite his passionate loyalty to the Palestinian Authority, Halimeh “accepted that the IPSC’s allegiance was to the Palestinian people and not to any faction”.
For much of his life he had to contend with serious health problems; he underwent a kidney transplant and a heart bypass operation and also suffered from diabetes, but he was always good-humoured and upbeat despite these difficulties.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation reported his death was as a result of choking but this was denied by a Palestinian embassy official who said he suffered symptoms similar to a heart attack and died in a Pretoria hospital.
Halimeh is survived by his wife, Iman, daughter Noura and son Ahmed.
Ali Ahmed Halimeh: born April 4th, 1953; died September 16th, 2012