Israel Branded Apartheid State,
New York Daily News, September 2, 2001

"Israel was branded a 'racist apartheid' state early today by thousands of non-governmental organizations attending a forum in South Africa that was part of the UN Conference against Racism. The harsh anti-Israeli language in the forum's final declaration injected new Middle East tension into the wider conference in Durban. Stunned Israeli delegates walked out after the declaration was adopted by 3,000 groups in 44 regional and interest-based caucuses. 'The decision of the conference of the NGOs adopted this morning is outright incitement, whose only purpose is to delegitimize the Jewish state and its people,' delegation spokesman Noam Katz said."

Tutu Calls US Soft on Israel,
Boston Globe, April 14, 2002

"Likening Israel's treatment of Palestinians to the oppression of blacks by the white apartheid government in South Africa, Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu yesterday chided the Bush administration for being too soft on prime minister Ariel Sharon ... Tutu said the Bush administration should demand Israel withdraw from the Gaza and the West Bank, adding that Israel's isolation of Yasir Arafat was ''bizarre and humiliating.' Speaking earlier to a gathering of about 500 peace activists and members of the pro-Palestinian group Sabeel at the church, he urged a movement in the United States to 'put out a clarion call to the people and the government of Israel.' 'An unjust Israeli government - no matter how powerful - will ultimately fall,' he said. Jewish leaders reacted strongly to Tutu's remarks. 'It's tragic that a person of his moral credentials would sacrifice them with such an ugly slur,' said Rob Leikind, director of the New England chapter of the Anti-Defamation League. 'Israel is in a simple fight for survival. It's a sad day for all of us when people engage in that kind of hyperbole' ... Tutu said he also is 'saddened' by the apparent lack of sympathy for the Palestinian cause in America and by the Bush administration's apparent unwillingness to rebuff Israeli interests at home. 'Somehow, the Israeli government is placed on a pedestal, where to criticize them is to be immediately dubbed as anti-Semitic,' he said. 'The Jewish lobby is powerful. Very powerful. So what? This is God's world.'"





Apartheid in the Holy Land, by Desmund Tutu,
The Guardian, April 29, 2002

"I have experienced Palestinians pointing to what were their homes, now occupied by Jewish Israelis. I was walking with Canon Naim Ateek (the head of the Sabeel Ecumenical Centre) in Jerusalem. He pointed and said: 'Our home was over there. We were driven out of our home; it is now occupied by Israeli Jews.' 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? Israel will never get true security and safety through oppressing another people. A true peace can ultimately be built only on justice. We condemn the violence of suicide bombers, and we condemn the corruption of young minds taught hatred; but we also condemn the violence of military incursions in the occupied lands, and the inhumanity that won't let ambulances reach the injured. The military action of recent days, I predict with certainty, will not provide the security and peace Israelis want; it will only intensify the hatred ... My brother Naim Ateek has said what we used to say: "I am not pro- this people or that. I am pro-justice, pro-freedom. I am anti- injustice, anti-oppression." But you know as well as I do that, somehow, the Israeli government is placed on a pedestal [in the US], and to criticise it is to be immediately dubbed anti-semitic, as if the Palestinians were not semitic. I am not even anti-white, despite the madness of that group. And how did it come about that Israel was collaborating with the apartheid government on security measures? 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."

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