Foxman On Tutu
The Jewish Week
10/19/07
I am surprised and disappointed to see Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) support allowing South Africa’s Desmond Tutu to speak at a Minnesota university despite the fact that Tutu is one of the most virulent critics of Israel and the Jewish people, constantly defaming both.
For example, in a Boston speech several years ago he said, “Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin … and the apartheid government were powerful … a lie, injustice, oppression will never prevail in the world of this God … they bit the dust … an unjust Israeli government, however powerful, will fall in the world of this G-d.”
Tutu went on to compare Israel to apartheid, saying “I’ve been deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it reminded me of so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa.”
Foxman, in his letter to the president of the university, acknowledged that Tutu’s “words have often stung the Jewish community” and “at times has crossed the line.” Does that mean crossed into anti-Semitism or venal hatred? Then why does the Anti-Defamation League betray its mission to fight those who defame Israel and Jews by supporting giving a defamer like Tutu a platform to potentially spew his venom?
Morton A. Klein
National President Zionist Organization of America