Who was Leila Shahid? First female Palestinian ambassador and Europe envoy dies at 76

Leila Shahid, the first woman to serve as a Palestinian ambassador and one of the most recognisable faces of Palestinian diplomacy in Europe, has died in France at the age of 76. Her death was confirmed by Palestinian officials, with President Mahmoud Abbas describing her as a “model of diplomacy” who remained committed to freedom, justice and peace throughout her career.

Born in Beirut in 1949 to a Palestinian family displaced in the aftermath of Israel’s establishment, Shahid’s early life was closely intertwined with the region’s upheaval. Her parents hailed from Jerusalem and northern Israel, experiences that deeply influenced her political and academic path.

Before entering formal diplomacy, she worked in Palestinian refugee camps and later moved to Paris in the 1970s to pursue a doctorate in anthropology. In 1976, she was elected head of the Palestinian student union in France.

She returned to Beirut during the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre, one of the most traumatic episodes of the Lebanese civil war, a moment that further shaped her international advocacy.

In 1989, the Palestine Liberation Organization appointed her ambassador to Ireland, making her the first female Palestinian envoy. A year later, she was posted to the Netherlands.

From 1993 to 2005, Shahid served as Palestinian envoy to France, a tenure that overlapped with the peace process and the eruption of the second intifada in 2000. During this period, she became a key diplomatic figure articulating the Palestinian position in European capitals.

She was also present during the final days of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in 2004, when he died at a French military hospital.

Between 2006 and 2014, Shahid represented Palestine to the European Union, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Apart from her ambassadorial roles, Shahid was the longtime director of The Review of Palestinian Studies, a French-language journal examining the history and politics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.