RAMALLAH, West Bank, Aug 26 (AFP) - It is in the Palestinians' interest to use non-violent methods in their struggle against Israel, the grandson of India's pacifist independence leader Mohandas "Mahatma" Gandhi said here Thursday.
"We are here to learn about the problems and also to talk about non-violence and hopefully explain to people that non-violence may be a possibility," Arun Gandhi said after an hour-long meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Gandhi said that if the Palestinian uprising, or intifada, which broke out in September 2000, had been a non-violent struggle from the start "perhaps the problem could have been solved".
Since the outbreak of fighting, statistics compiled by AFP show 4,247 people have been killed, including 3,249 Palestinians and 927 Israelis.
"If the Palestinian people rose up and started a non-violent mouvement, it would step up world sympathy and the nations of the world would get up and put more pressure on the Israelis," he said.
Following his meeting with the veteran Palestinian leader, Gandhi took part in a solidarity rally for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails who are in the 12th day of a hunger strike demanding an improvement in their conditions.
As a show of solidarity with the hunger strikers, Gandhi said that he and the members of his entourage would observe a one-day fast on Friday.
He is due to meet with Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei on Friday and take part in a mass demonstration against the separation barrier Israel is building in the West Bank.