The Rev. Jesse Jackson today cancelled his earlier plans to visit with Christian militias in south Lebanon and meet Yosef Tekoah, president of the Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba. After a tour of the Old City the Black leader who heads “Operation PUSH,” visited the Kalandia refugee camp north of Jerusalem and applauded when the local speakers praised the Palestine Liberation Organization as the sole representative of the Palestinian people.
The changes in Jackson’s tour, and the open support for the PLO, brought sharp reactions from Israeli personalities. Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek, who accompanied Jackson on his East Jerusalem tour and met with him yesterday on his arrival in Israel, said he did not expect to change his views on the PLO.
Tekoah said the change in Jackson’s tour only proved that he wanted to meet more with Arabs than with Jews. He said Israel would never dare suggest to Black leaders to meet with the Ku Klux Klan. Therefore, Tekoah suggested, the Blacks in America should not demand that Israel meet with the PLO, an organization which calls for Israel’s annihilation.
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