The Palestinian delegate to the EU, Leïla Shahid, in a press conference on Nov. 6, 2010, in Ajaccio, on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica. (Credit: Stephan Agostini/AFP)
With her melodic accent, warm voice and sharp eloquence, she was impossible to overlook. A singular and combative voice, that of a woman who never yielded in the face of adversity, tirelessly championing the Palestinian cause at a time when it struggled to gain traction in a French political and media landscape largely sympathetic to Israel.She was an activist who spent her life striving to ensure that the Palestinian question was understood for what she believed it to be: a universal cause of justice, freedom and equality.Leila Shahid, former Palestine’s delegate general to France from 1993 to 2005 and later to the European Union, Belgium and Luxembourg from 2006 to 2015, died on Feb. 18, 2026, at the age of 76.Her life was defined by political commitment, and her final years were particularly painful, shaped by what she saw as the...
With her melodic accent, warm voice and sharp eloquence, she was impossible to overlook. A singular and combative voice, that of a woman who never yielded in the face of adversity, tirelessly championing the Palestinian cause at a time when it struggled to gain traction in a French political and media landscape largely sympathetic to Israel.She was an activist who spent her life striving to ensure that the Palestinian question was understood for what she believed it to be: a universal cause of justice, freedom and equality.Leila Shahid, former Palestine’s delegate general to France from 1993 to 2005 and later to the European Union, Belgium and Luxembourg from 2006 to 2015, died on Feb. 18, 2026, at the age of 76.Her life was defined by political commitment, and her final years were particularly painful, shaped by what she saw as the...