On children
editTutu said a birth document was important because it "proves who you are." Without it, children are often barred from education, health care, and citizenship. Tutu said:
"It is, in a very real sense, a matter of life and death. The unregistered child is a nonentity. The unregistered child does not exist. How can we live with the knowledge that we could have made a difference?."
On Israel and relationship with the Jewish community
editHe made similar comments in 2002, speaking of "the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about".[1] He has drawn attention to a letter signed by several hundred prominent Jewish South Africans drawing an explicit analogy between apartheid and current Israeli policies.
In 1988, the American Jewish Committee noted that Tutu was strongly critical of Israel's military and other connections with apartheid-era South Africa, and quoted him as saying that Zionism has "very many parallels with racism", on the grounds that it "excludes people on ethnic or other grounds over which they have no control". While the AJC was critical of some of Tutu's views, it was dismissive of "insidious rumours" that he had made anti-Semitic statements.[2] The precise wording of Tutu's statement has been reported differently in different sources. A subsequent Toronto Star article indicates that he described Zionism "as a policy that looks like it has many parallels with racism, the effect is the same.[3]
Tutu preached a message of forgiveness during a 1989 trip to Israel's Yad Vashem museum, saying "Our Lord would say that in the end the positive thing that can come is the spirit of forgiving, not forgetting, but the spirit of saying: God, this happened to us. We pray for those who made it happen, help us to forgive them and help us so that we in our turn will not make others suffer."[4] Some found this statement offensive, with Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center calling it "a gratuitous insult to Jews and victims of Nazism everywhere."[5] Tutu was subjected to racial slurs during this visit to Israel, with vandals writing "Black Nazi pig" on the walls of the St. George's Cathedral in East Jerusalem, where he was staying.[4]
In 2002, when delivering a public lecture in support of divestment, Tutu said "My heart aches. I say why are our memories so short. Have our Jewish sisters and brothers forgotten their humiliation? Have they forgotten the collective punishment, the home demolitions, in their own history so soon? Have they turned their backs on their profound and noble religious traditions? Have they forgotten that God cares deeply about the downtrodden?"[6] He argued that Israel could never live in security by oppressing another people, and continued, "People are scared in this country [the US], to say wrong is wrong because the Jewish lobby is powerful - very powerful. Well, so what? For goodness sake, this is God's world! We live in a moral universe. The apartheid government was very powerful, but today it no longer exists. Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Pinochet, Milosevic, and Idi Amin were all powerful, but in the end they bit the dust."[6] The latter statement was criticized by some Jewish groups, including the Anti-Defamation League.[7] [8] When he edited and reprinted parts of his speech in 2005, Tutu replaced the phrase "Jewish lobby" with "pro-Israel lobby".[9]
Also in 2003, Archbishop Tutu received an International Advocate for Peace Award from the Cardozo School of Law, an affiliate of Yeshiva University, sparking scattered student protests and condemnations from representatives of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Anti-Defamation League.[10] A 2006 opinion piece in the Jerusalem Post newspaper described him as "a friend, albeit a misguided one, of Israel and the Jewish people".[11] The Zionist Organization of America has led a campaign to protest Tutu's appearances at North American campuses.
In 2007, the president of the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota cancelled a planned speech from Tutu, on the grounds that his presence might offend some members of the local Jewish community.[12] Many faculty members opposed this decision, and with some describing Tutu as the victim of a smear campaign. The group Jewish Voice for Peace led an email campaign calling on St. Thomas to reconsider its decision[13], which the president did and invited Tutu to campus.[14] Tutu declined the re-invitation, speaking instead at the Minneapolis Convention Center at an event hosted by Metro State University.[15]
In October 2007, Tutu visited Boston, Massachusetts where he sparked controversy after speaking at a conference entitled The Apartheid Paradigm in Palestine-Israel. Members of Boston's Jewish community criticized Tutu's comparison of Israel with Apartheid in South Africa, saying drawing such a parallel was inappropriate and unfair.[16]
Beit Hanoun
editA spokesman from the Israeli foreign ministry indicated that no final decision had been made, to which Tutu responded, "At times not making a decision is making a decision. We couldn't obviously wait in limbo indefinitely." The Anti-Defamation League stated that the appointment of Tutu as head of the mission is not appropriate on the grounds that he would be a prepossessed observer, and criticized the mission for having not "address[ed] the continuing barrage of Kassam rockets fired into Israel by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza, killing and maiming Israeli citizens...Tutu has already publicly expressed his anti-Israel views and his opinions regarding what happened in Beit Hanoun, and combined with the one-sided anti-Israel mandate provided by the resolution, the results of the mission are all-but preordained".[7]
Haiti
editIn 2004, Tutu spoke critically of South Africa's acceptance of ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrande Aristide for political asylum.
Archbishop Tutu said: "I would have hoped that he had gone anywhere but South Africa. But if it is a case of us preventing him from being killed I suppose that it is okay, but if there are charges that he should face, I think he should face those charges, if there is a guarantee that he would have safe passage and a proper trial. It's unlikely. However each of us has the capacity to become a saint, even the worst dictator."[17]
- ^ "Tutu condemns Israeli 'apartheid'". BBC. 2002-04-29. Retrieved 2006-11-28.
- ^ Shimoni, Gideon (1988). "South African Jews and the Apartheid Crisis" (PDF). American Jewish Year Book. 88. American Jewish Committee: 50.
- ^ Barthos, Gordon (1989-12-20). "Israelis uneasy about Tutu's Yule visit". Toronto Star.
- ^ a b "Tutu Urges Jews to Forgive The Nazis". San Francisco Chronicle. 1989-12-27.
- ^ "Tutu assailed". Chicago Sun-Times. 1989-12-30. p. 13.
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
tutuwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b "ADL Blasts Appointment Of Desmond Tutu As Head Of U.N. Fact Finding Mission To Gaza" (Press release). Anti-Defamation League. 2006. Retrieved 2007-10-04.
- ^ Phillips, Melanie (2002-05-06). "Bigotry and a corruption of the truth". Daily Mail.
- ^ Tutu, Desmond (forward) (2005). Michael Prior (ed.). Speaking the Truth: Zionism, Israel, and Occupation. Olive Branch Press. p. 12.
- ^ "Tutu Honor Too Too Much?". Jewish Week.
- ^ Derfner, Larry (2006-10-15). "Anti-Semite and Jew". Jerusalem Post. p. 15.
- ^ Furst, Randy (2007-10-04). "St. Thomas won't host Tutu". Minneapolis Star Tribune.
- ^ Furst, Randy (2007-10-05). "St. Thomas urged to reconsider its decision not to invite Tutu". Minneapolis Star Tribune. Retrieved 2007-10-07.
- ^ "UST president says he made wrong decision, invites Tutu to campus". University of St. Thomas Bulletin. Retrieved 2007-10-07.
- ^ Mador, Jessica (2008-04-12). "Desmond Tutu avoids politics while talking about peace". Minnesota Public Radio. Retrieved 2008-05-06.
- ^ "Tutu Advises Boston Youth". WBUR. 2007-10-30.
- ^ "Archbishop Desmond Tutu warns South African Government about accepting Aristide" (Press release). BBC. 2004-03-03. Retrieved 2008-01-22.