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Jesse Jackson advocating non-violent solution to Mideast crisis
2002-161-2
6/25/2002
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[Episcopal News Service]
Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, speaking to reporters after meeting with leaders at the Geneva headquarters of the World Council of Churches, said that neither Israelis or Palestinians have 'the courage to overcome the deadlock' and find non-violent solutions to the Mideast crisis.
'We need a third force to reconcile the sides; we must build a bridge and heal a breach, reach out to civil society within Israel and among the Palestinians,' said Jackson, who is planning to take an inter-faith delegation to the region to help promote a 'third force' for non-violent reconciliation. In preparation for the trip, he visited the WCC to seek the organization's 'moral authority and credibility to convene a body of world religious leaders' who might take part in the trip. The WCC has 'a huge role to lay as the convener of the family' of churches, he said.
Warning that 'time is running out,' Jackson said that he feared the violence would spread and 'redefine the world as we know it overnight,' with suicide bombers attacking Europe or the U.S. 'unless we are able to break the cycle of occupation and the cycle of bombing.' He said that American policy was 'muddled,' split between strong support for Israel and an attempt to play a mediating role.
'Maybe the U.S. cannot be the substantial supporter of one side and then be the referee for both,' Jackson said. 'That's why the WCC, the European Union, the U.N. and perhaps Egypt must play a more decisive role as a third force.' Recently he issued an open letter to Palestinian chairman Yasser Arafat, urging him 'to call not simply for the end to terrorist bombings, but for a new commitment to non-violence as the means to achieve Palestinian statehood.'
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