Two men who created waves for President Barack Obama on the campaign trail have appeared together at a suburban Chicago church to promote Mideast peace.
Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. and 1960s radical William Ayers spoke Sunday at First United Church of Oak Park during a forum on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The event took place the day before Obama was set to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Both Wright and Ayers urged the hundreds in attendance to rethink the conflict, but both also took the opportunity to poke fun at the scrutiny they received during Obama’s run for the White House.
Organizers of the Committee for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine said Wright and Ayers were invited because of their work on the conflict, not their political fame.
“We can’t be squelching viewpoints because they are unpopular…’’ said spokeswoman Caren Levy Van Slyke.
Wright, the former head of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, was Obama’s pastor for two decades. But Obama distanced himself from Wright after video clips of the pastor’s more incendiary remarks were widely circulated.
Ayers, a co-founder of the Weather Underground, once served with Obama on the board of a Chicago charity. Ayers also hosted an event for Obama in the 1990s.
At the event, Ayers, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said a new curriculum is needed to better understand the conflict.
He said he felt “support and solidarity’’ with Wright when his association to Obama became an issue on the campaign trail. He poked fun at how he was labeled a “terrorist’’ and that Wright was referred to as a “fiery preacher.’’
Wright made parallels between Trinity’s actions opposing apartheid in South Africa and current efforts for Mideast peace. He said local actions calling for peace in the troubled region would be heard.
