Arabs cry ‘Jackson! Arafat!’

Associated Press

Transcribed from the clipping

“NABLUS, Occupied West Bank (AP) — The Rev. Jesse Jackson fired up a Palestinian crowd to a screaming pitch today with black pride chants in the heart of the Israeli-occupied West Bank of the Jordan River. The Arabs later carried him off on their shoulders, chanting, ‘Jackson! Arafat!’

‘Do not put symbols over substance, do not allow acts of terror to divert you from a homeland,’ Jackson said after receiving a tumultuous welcome from an overflow crowd of hundreds at the Nablus town hall.

The Palestinian crowd chanted, ‘Palestine is Arabic!’ and raised V-for-victory signs in a reception that contrasted with the cold shoulder the Israeli government gave Jackson because of his support of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Speaking through an interpreter who translated his remarks into Arabic, Jackson supported the Palestinian goal of a homeland but said West Bankers should reassess their tactics, taking the black struggle for civil rights in America as a model.

‘We became disciplined and determined, and nothing could stop us from achieving our human rights and our place in the sun and self-determination,’ he said. ‘You are very close to freedom and liberation,’ he said.

Jackson repeated the message he stressed to Israelis earlier in his tour: ‘Somebody must have the strength to break the cycle of terror and pain.’ Some Palestinians in the crowd shook their heads as Jackson urged moderation, implying criticism of the radical sentiment which prevails in Nablus, the largest city in the West Bank and the most nationalistic.

But Jackson roused the crowd to a screaming pitch with a civil rights cheer: ‘I am somebody! We can win! We ought to win! We must win!’ The crowd reverted to Palestinian slogans as they carried the American from the room on their shoulders chanting ‘Jackson! Arafat!’

Jackson will meet PLO chief Yasser Arafat when he goes to Lebanon after visiting Jordan. Starting his day in Jerusalem, Jackson condemned terrorism in a sermon to about 150 worshipers at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in the Old City.

‘I shall appeal to the PLO to stop their tactics of terrorism, to recognize Israel’’s right and need to exist, to articulate its own goal for self-determination and a homeland and to fight for peaceful coexistence,’ Jackson said.”

Context added by this archive

The same dispatch the Grand Rapids Press ran that day, stopped short: this paper cuts it at the Jerusalem sermon and leaves out the two American Jewish travelers who accused Jackson of careerism and Begin’s refusal to meet the delegation.

Cite this item

"Arabs cry ‘Jackson! Arafat!’," The Daily News, 26 September 1979. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1979-016. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1979-016