The estimable Walter Russell Mead has a disturbing story about the so-called Free Gaza Movement.
The website of the Free Gaza Movement, a sponsor of the Gaza Flotilla, lists some impressive celebrity endorsements. One of the most impressive names on the list is that of Desmond Tutu, revered throughout the world for his courageous stand against South Africa’s apartheid government and for his leadership of initiatives like the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which did so much to heal the wounds apartheid left behind.
But there was something the Free Gaza Movement didn’t tell the archbishop: its co-founder and board chair is a Jew-hater named Greta Berlin who uses the organization as a platform form which to spread the ugliest anti-Semitic legends and, literally, Nazi propaganda and lies.
Free Gaza now alleges that Jews and Germans cooked up the Holocaust together. It
posted this on its Twitter Feed: “Zionists operated the concentration camps and helped murder millions of innocent Jews” with a link to this awful video.
Ironically, the mad evil of this is an inadvertent confirmation of the Holocaust, something that the kind of people who despise Israel’s very existence typically assert either never happened or was history’s greatest event. They just can’t make up their mind.
Oh, and you will be delighted to learn that Free Gaza believes the word Nazi is a portmanteau of nationalist and Zionist. Seriously.
Then there’s the group’s cinematic taste.
The Free Gaza Movement is also touting an anti-Semitic film actually produced under the Propaganda Ministry of Joseph Goebbels during the Third Reich itself: a Nazi propaganda film on the Katyn massacre that tried to whip up hatred against Communists and Jews.
Mead suggests to Desmond Tutu that he needs to “apologize to the Jews” for allowing Free Gaza to use his name (along with other “celebrities”) in pursuit of its goals.
Obviously Archbishop Tutu had no idea he was getting in bed with Nazi-class Jew haters and aspiring genocidaires when he allowed the Free Gaza Movement the use of his name.
Sorry, Walter, but there’s no reason to believe Tutu didn’t know whom he was in bed with–and many good reasons to believe he approves. The great hero of apartheid has a long and inglorious history of anti-Semitism—as Google auto-fill confirms.
Take, for example, this Front Page Magazine story by Alan Dershowitz:
[Tutu] has minimized the suffering of those killed in the Holocaust. He has attacked the “Jewish”–not Israeli–”lobby” as too “powerful” and “scar[y].” He has invoked classic anti-Semitic stereotypes and tropes about Jewish “arrogance”, “power” and money. He has characterized Jews a “peculiar people,” and has accused “the Jews” of causing many of the world’s problems. He once even accused the Jewish state of acting in an “unChristian” way….
Tutu has asserted that Zionism has “very many parallels with racism,” thus echoing the notorious and discredited “Zionism equals racism” resolution passed by the General Assembly of the United Nations and subsequently rescinded. He has accused the Jews of Israel of doing “things that even Apartheid South Africa had not done.”
Read the whole thing for more stomach-churning details. Or simply type Desmond Tutu anti-Semitism for a couple of million more hits. (You won’t have to type all of the characters.)
No question, Tutu is happily in the kind of company he has long enjoyed keeping under the clever guise of inviolate morality. And if you want to know who else is keeping it with him, click on this rogue’s gallery of world-class Jew- and Israel-hating individuals and organizations. The oldest hatred is again becoming institutionalized and respectable.
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Comments
I read Mead’s post yesterday and my first thought was the same as yours: Tutu likely knows exactly what he’s doing. Sad.
Why doesn’t Tutu just call them Kikes while he is at it. I am disappointed, but frankly not surprised.
“The oldest hatred is again becoming institutionalized and respectable.”
And obviously infests the highest levels of government and academia.
Tutu’s willingness to excuse anything negative happening to Jews isn’t something new.
The Islamic Caliphate seeks a revival. It must have been humiliating when their occupation of Israel was finally ended.
The Europeans should pay attention to the renewed interest in Islamic imperialism. The rate for immigration of these people has far outpaced the rate of assimilation.
Serbia has experienced the consequences of competing cultures. So has Norway. So has France and the rest of Europe. So has Israel. Subversion from within is the most insidious betrayal.
As for Tutu, he should pay attention to the progressive sanctioned apartheid in South Africa. It is unbecoming a “wise” man to support the denigration of individual dignity.
n.n. Add Spain to that list and probably Belgium. Muslims are taking over by immigrating and also with high birth rates. There is a video that is circulating on the web of an imam in Belgium precisely outlining that course of action. Our parish priest walked the “Camino” to Santiago de Compostela this summer and he said that it is incredible how the composition of populations in countries such as France and Spain has changed.
As for Tutu, he has never really hidden his leanings and probably is well aware of who these people are.
Yes. Unfortunately, a majority of Europeans (much like a majority of Americans) have normalized behaviors which constitute evolutionary dysfunction, and as they voluntarily commit generational suicide, they will be replaced by people who have a firmer grasp of reality (less tolerant though they may be). Unlike their ancestors, there will not be an army at their gates to awaken them from their decadent slumber. This time, they will have to recognize the behaviors which endanger their viability and recognize that their dreams of instant gratification serve to enslave them.
Just wanted to note that if you Google Free Gaza, Code Pink, Jodi Evans, William Ayers and Obama, you’ll understand better why Obama told Mubarek he was History and how the “Arab Spring” represented a new beginning for the Leftists, Communists and Islamists, all of whom were not inaugurating a new “iPhone-led Democracy” in Tahrir Square when Lara Logan got gang raped.
Et tu, Tutu?
There’s an inverse relationship growing in my brain between winning a Nobel Peace Prize and how much I trust a person.
1. Per Captain Hate’s comment above, Tutu has struck me as no friend of the Jews for as long as I’ve read about him.
2. Walter Russell Mead is on the list of Democrats I take seriously, but he has a liberal’s excessive optimism about human nature.
I’m with you, Joel – I have no doubt Tutu knows exactly who these clowns are and agrees exactly (or even worse, if that’s possible) with what they said.
” the Free Gaza Movement didn’t tell the archbishop: its co-founder and board chair is a Jew-hater named Greta Berlin who uses the organization as a platform form which to spread the ugliest anti-Semitic legends and, literally, Nazi propaganda and lies. ”
Heh! Tutu from the time he was bishop of the Anglican Church in Johannesburg, SA was an antisemite with the replacement theology he practiced.
His work with Naim Ateek of the Sabeel group in which they spread the word was one of antisemitism using Israel and Zionism as the excuse.
He has certainly done his most to portray Israel as an Apartheid state.
http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=29275
http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/15944/Christian_Peace_Groups/
http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=2&x_outlet=118&x_article=1396
” The Archbishop picked an odd place to express his philo-Semitism, however. Tutu was speaking at a conference organized by Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, an organization led by Anglican Canon Naim Ateek, who has written, among other things, of an “Israeli government crucifixion system operating daily” in the disputed territories. Rev. Ateek’s portrayal of the Palestinians as innocent sufferers at the hands of Israeli crucifiers “
Next thing you know, Tutu will be seen talking with white supremacists.
http://tinyurl.com/Tutu-Botha
So we Googled Desmond Tutu anti-semitism. The first link was to Wikipedia which cites the American Jewish Committee which calls the rumours of Tutu’s anti-semitism to be “”insidious”.
But the clincher is that #11 on the search results was this very page, a sure sign of the right-wing echo chamber.
I’ll charitably allow that you may not know that the AJC is to philo-Semitism what the Dept. of Education has proved to be to education. Or, if you like, it is to Jews what “Jews for Jesus” is to Judaism.
Among other things, the American Jewish Committee ignored the plight of European Jewry during the 1930s, and actively hampered (gentile) Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes from finding a haven for Jews. In his book “The Secret Diary of Harold L. Ickes,” the volume titled “The Lowering Clouds,” Ickes made his contempt clear.
As recently as a few years ago, the AJC in Detroit honored a Business Week editor named Paul Barrett who is clearly a Pan-Islamist; he wrote a book called “American Islam: The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion.” He contends Islam is good for America.
AJC is a political group that gains credibility from both useful idiots and the truly ignorant by having “Jewish” in its name. And, I strongly suspect, much of its funding comes from sources that most of us would find unsavory—assuming philo-Semitism is the goal.
Here’s also something to consider. How many public figures are accused of being anti-Semitic as often as Tutu? How many alleged refutations of anti-Semitism by theoretically prominent organizations do most public figures need?
The accusation of anti-Semitism seems to be at least in part a case of guilt by association. There is a person associated with the Free Gaza Movement who has made statements of an anti-Semitic nature; Tutu is associated with the Movement; therefore, Tutu is anti-Semitic.
There seem to be many folks pointing to the Dershowitz article. In the article cited, Dershowitz did not provide any sources for the quotes he attributes to Tutu. I would be interested in seeing the sources and the context of the quotes. Dershowitz is a skillful and ferocious advocate for what he believes in and in many instances tries to paint prominent supporters of competing points of view as anti-Semites, which seems unfair to me.
Asserting that the extent of this is “a person associated with” the group ignores the group’s past. But again, charitably allowing that your contention is possible, let’s see how quickly Tutu and the others remove their name from the list. If he doesn’t, would you agree that it’s more than “guilty by association”?
Since it’s unclear whether the Greta Berlin statements represent the official position of this group, it might be asking too much for him to totally withdraw support. If I were him, however, I would at least publicly disavow Berlin’s statements and demand that she be separated from the group. This group claims Noam Chomsky and James Abourezk, among others, as members of its Board of Advisors (http://www.freegaza.org/en/about-us/who-we-are/1089-advisors). Seems strange that Tutu is being singled out in this controversy. On the group’s web site you can also see that some supporters are vociferously criticizing Berlin via Twitter. It looks like the group’s supporters include a amalgam of different kinds of people and organizations.
“This group claims Noam Chomsky…”
That is not doing Plaintalk’s argument any favor:
http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/michael-j-totten/noam-chomsky-last-totalitarian
Come on over baiter,
Whole lotta association’ goin’ on …
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4107913,00.html
No need to insult Jews for Jesus in this way. At least Jesus was a good and faithful Jew.
Indirection. Nothing you have posted provides any support to accusations about Tutu.
Joel Engel: How many public figures are accused of being anti-Semitic as often as Tutu?
Even worse argument.
The original blog suggested we Google, and we did. The results don’t support the charge, but do show how the right-wing echo chamber works.
Apart from being an enemy of Israel, Tutu has some peculiar racist beliefs as well. He’s called for race-based taxation in his homeland. If he had his way ALL white South Africans would have to pay a “wealth” tax, the only criteria being skin colour, not income. Amongst Tutus several homes is a beach-front mansion in Milnerton, Cape Town. Less than a mile away is the neighbourhood of Rugby, home to thousands of poor whites. I guess Tutu has never noticed.
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/Tutus-white-tax-is-racist-20110813
Tutu has always been an antisemitic jerk. That’s why the nut cases on the Nobel committee recognized him.
If there’s a separate committee for the Nobel Peace Prize, it should just be folded into the U.N.
Give it to the winner at the anti-Israelfest in Durban.
Yes, the Peace Prize is awarded by a completely separate committee, populated by moonbats, by all appearances.
“Free Gaza now alleges that Jews and Germans cooked up the Holocaust together.”
Really?!?!?!
Yasser Arafat’s uncle, Amin el-Husseini, who was the grand mufti of Jerusalem, and who collaborated with Himmler and urged him to work faster in the slaughter of Jews, to the extent of offering to send Arabs to partake of the exterminations, to the extent of providing Arabs troops for Hitler, el-Husseini would be shocked, stunned, and amazed to discover that todays Arabs and their symps are now giving Jews credit for his work! The nerve of these people! How dare they?!?!
As for Tutu, those of you who say you are disappointed must be kidding, right?
More on Tutu.
http://frontpagemag.com/2010/edward-alexander/obamas-other-anti-semitic-guru/
Apology regarding TWEET
http://www.freegaza.org/en/home/56-news/1367-apology-regarding-tweet
“Greta has added, “I apologize that I did not watch the video before hitting SHARE on Facebook. I was in a rush to get to a book event and simply reposted. The fault is completely mine.”
Of course, we all hit share to videos on FB we don’t watch. That’s how it works, of course. Nothing to see, move along.
There is a shopping district in Sydney where all the shoe shops were owned by South African Jews. A visit used to be a must simply for an unforgettable experience.
I once worked at a nearby Jewish school & can say the kids are ok but the parents are legendary.
Perhaps Desmond has Post Shoe Trauma .
clarification -the Jewish school in that district.
I have to say it was fun.
W. R. Mead is an Episcopalian (Anglican), as am I titularly. Tutu is a racist, always has been, as well as Arab/Pan-African Imperialist. He is a self-promoting politician liar. He is neither a theologian nor a clergyman. “A vestment does not make a bishop.” – St. Jerome. Mead is a long way from reaching the back of the problem. He is like the silly women to whom St. Paul refers, who learn and learn and never understand. Or to change the metaphor, slip into bed with a beautiful spouse and be unable to carry through naturally, a metaphor I used in pre-WWW days to indicate the puissance of Norman Cousins’ operating philosophy.
I’m very familiar with the notion “I wish they’d make up their minds.” My brother is a Nazi. He goes on and on about how the Holocaust was faked. (“The ovens at Auschwitz can’t fit people inside them!” etc.) Then you see him again later and he’ll tell you that Hitler is a great hero because he tried to wipe out all the Jews. A few days later, it’s now the Jews who made the Holocaust happen in order to get Israel created. And around and around and around it goes.
I wonder if all his differeing theories are due to different personalities in his head. But I’ve given up talking to him. It’s too creepy.