South African Archbishop harshly condemns Israeli occupation

Monday October 29, 2007 21:26 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC

In a speech given this weekend in Boston, in the United States, renowned Archbishop Desmond Tutu soundly rebuffed the Israeli state for engaging in what he termed as ‘apartheid’ against the Palestinian people.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Apartheid is a South African term referring to a race-based policy of discrimination. Apartheid was ended in South Africa in 1994, through the efforts of an anti-apartheid movement in which Archbishop Tutu was a leader.

In his speech, he stated, “From my experience in South Africa I know that truth-telling is hard. It has grave consequences for one's life and reputation. It stretches one's faith, tests one's capacity to love, and pushes hope to the limit. At times, the difficulty of this work can make you wonder if people are right about you, that you are a fool.”

Tutu has been previously criticized for taking a stand against the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. He has been denied a visa to Israel, and was blocked from speaking at an American University due to pressure from pro-Israeli groups.

Of his opinions on the continuing Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Tutu sharply criticized the illegal Israeli wall, branding the structure as reminiscent of apartheid-era South Africa.

“What do I see and hear in the Holy Land? Some people cannot move freely from one place to another. A wall separates them from their families and from their incomes. They cannot tend to their gardens at home or to their lessons at school. They are arbitrarily demeaned at checkpoints and unnecessarily beleaguered by capricious applications of bureaucratic red tape. I grieve for the damage being done daily to people's souls and bodies. I have to tell the truth: I am reminded of the yoke of oppression that was once our burden in South Africa.”

The conference at which Archbishop Tutu spoke was sponsored by the Friends of Sabeel – North America, an ecumenical Christian organization that works toward peace in the Holy Land.

Following his speech, many of the audience members participated in a march to end the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the Israeli occupation of Palestine. The pro-Palestine contingent in that march was led by the Jewish Voice for Peace.

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