Leila Shahid, the first woman to represent Palestine abroad, including as ambassador to France, has died at her home in southern France at the age of 76. She is remembered for her tireless championing of the Palestinian cause in Europe.
Shahid, who had reportedly been ill for several years, was found dead on Wednesday in the southern village of La Lèque, where she moved after her retirement. According to initial findings from an investigation into the cause of death, French news agency AFP reported, she died by suicide.
The first woman to represent the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) overseas, Shahid held several prominent posts in Europe during some of the most turbulent years of the Middle East conflict.
Born in Lebanon in 1949, Shahid spent her diplomatic career in Europe. She served as the PLO’s general delegate in France from 1993 to 2005, before taking up the same role to the European Union in Brussels.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas described Shahid as “a model of diplomacy committed to the values of freedom, justice and peace”, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.
He said she “devoted her life to defending the Palestinian cause and was a genuine voice for Palestinian diplomacy”.
Life of Palestinian advocacy
Shahid joined Palestinian liberation movement Fatah at the age of 18, during the Six-Day War between Israel and neighbouring Arab states. She soon began working alongside PLO leader Yasser Arafat, who encouraged her into international diplomacy.
Arafat believed Palestinian women played a key role in the struggle against occupation, and he wanted them to become leading figures within the PLO.
Although she initially resisted, Shahid eventually agreed, becoming the first female Palestinian representative abroad in 1989, shortly after the first Intifada of 1987.
She served as Palestine’s ambassador to Ireland, then the Netherlands and Denmark, before moving to France where she represented Palestine at Unesco and later served as envoy to France.
Shahid rejected a posting to the United States, arguing that the relationship between the Arab world and Europe was key. She instead became the Palestinian representative to the European Union in Brussels from 2006 to 2014.
Hassan Balawi, the current Palestinian ambassador to Mali, who worked with Shahid in Belgium, said she had succeeded in raising European awareness of the Palestinian question.
“Leila Shahid belongs to a generation of Palestinian diplomats who managed, not only in political terms but also in human terms, to adapt the explanation of the Palestinian question to a European mindset and culture,” he told RFI.
“Sometimes, when representing Palestine, we think in Arab terms, with a Palestinian mindset, and we sometimes forget that we are addressing a European audience that does not share the same cultural and logical reference points. Leila Shahid understood – or always tried to understand – the culture of the other.”
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'Profoundly Palestinian'
Shahid left the diplomatic world in 2015, disappointed in Europe’s stance towards Israel.
She became president of the Friends of the Arab World Institute in Paris and continued to advocate for Palestinians, traveling between France and Lebanon.
She returned to the public eye after Hamas’ attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, giving media interviews as Israel launched its bombing campaign in Gaza.
Speaking to RFI after France recognised the Palestinian state in 2025, Shahid called it “more than symbolic” – but acknowledged that it would take time to become a reality, “especially given the number of settlements the Israelis have created in the West Bank and the fact that they have practically destroyed the Gaza Strip in its entirety”.
The recognition “gives a sense of dignity, that we are equal to other peoples”, she said.
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Tributes for Shahid have poured out of the Palestinian territories, where she was seen as embodying Palestinian voices abroad.
“She was universal, while remaining profoundly Palestinian,” said Majed Bamya, Palestine's representative to the United Nations, noting that she “managed to remain an activist while being a diplomat, deliberately breaking the codes of diplomacy”.
Mustafa Barghouti, leader of the Palestinian National Initiative party, said that Shahid would be “remembered as the finest Palestinian diplomat”, recalling that she remained “always true to her principles”.
