Issue date: 4/21/03 Section: Opinion

[Noel Fahden/The Daily Pennsylvanian] [Click to enlarge]

I'd like to use my last column of the semester to alert you to the bizarre claims made by the Archbishop Desmond Tutu, this year's Commencement speaker.

The archbishop certainly has the necessary credentials to headline at a prestigious Ivy League university. He's a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who worked diligently and courageously to bring down the apartheid government in South Africa. He also played a key role in South Africa's first post-apartheid government as the head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

But in recent weeks, Archbishop Tutu has fallen into the trap of projecting his personal experience in South Africa onto parts of the world with which he is relatively unfamiliar. Suddenly, he sees apartheid everywhere.

For example, last month, he compared America to apartheid South Africa. Why? Because New York City refused to permit an anti-war demonstration to proceed south of 59th Street in Manhattan. The city decided to prevent any and all demonstrations from moving south of this point after Sept. 11 because of the need for security near Ground Zero and the headquarters of the United Nations. This hardly sounds like the work of a repressive government.

He also criticized the United States on the very day that Baghdad fell, calling our war against Saddam Hussein "immoral" and "unnecessary."

Perhaps the archbishop's remarks were influenced by his strong opposition to the firm hand taken by the United States to protect itself against further Sept. 11-type atrocities. Tutu advocates a considerably different approach to eliminating terrorism. He advocates "believing in the essential humanity of even the worst possible terrorist, remembering that that person too is created in the image of God."

Apparently, we're supposed to hug and kiss bin Laden.

This was not the first time the archbishop had demonstrated a world view that seems both insensitive and naïve. On a visit to Israel, he dumbfounded his audience by using his visit to the Holocaust museum and memorial in Jerusalem to suggest that Israel should forgive the Nazis for their atrocities. Perhaps his audience should not have been surprised, as previously, he had suggested the gas chambers "made for a neater death" than apartheid resettlement policies.

Last year, the archbishop completely went off the deep end. He remarked, "Israel is like Hitler and apartheid." He continued with, "I am a black South African, and if I were to change the names, a description of what is happening in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank could describe events in South Africa."

Astonishingly, Archbishop Tutu fails to see any distinction between Hitler, apartheid South Africa and the state of Israel. This despite Israel being the only true democracy in the Middle East and the only country where Arab citizens are given the right to vote.

Of course, the archbishop is well aware that criticism of the state of Israel can often lead to accusations of "anti-Semitism." Perhaps in an attempt to pre-empt such accusations, he often starts his remarks with the equivalent of the "some of my best friends are Jewish" routine.

He points out that "in our struggle against apartheid, the great supporters were Jewish people." Within a few seconds, he then moves on to condemning Israel as a Nazi state and concludes his remarks by calling upon Americans to divest from and boycott all business within the state of Israel.

The formality of the Commencement speech will not give the audience the chance to pose questions to the archbishop. This is unfortunate, as it will deny the audience the opportunity to gain further insight into his thoughts. Here are some of the questions I would like him to address, allowing him to expand and clarify his previous public statements:

What was behind his statement to the members of a church in Connecticut that "Jews thought they had a monopoly on God; Jesus was angry that they could shut out other human beings"? Was he accusing specific Jews or was he condemning the entire religion?

What did the archbishop mean when he accused the Jewish people of "arrogance -- the arrogance of power because Jews are a powerful lobby in this land and all kinds of people woo their support"? Were his remarks aimed at condemning individual members of the Jewish faith or the entire race?

What was he thinking when he claimed "whether Jews like it or not, they are a peculiar people. They can't ever hope to be judged by the same standards which are used for other people"? Again, were his remarks aimed at the behavior of an individual Jew or the whole Jewish community?

There's an old saying that "just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you." I would suggest that just because Tutu has been accused of being anti-Semitic for comparing Israel to Hitler's Nazi Germany does not by itself mean he is not anti-Semitic.

Perhaps the Commencement speaker will use his visit to Penn to explain his views about the Jewish people. This would be helpful, as it may clarify why he sees apartheid in legitimate attempts by democratically elected governments in the United States and Israel to protect their citizens from further Sept. 11-type atrocities.

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David Copley is a Wharton sophomore concentrating in Real Estate and Finance from Bellevue, Wash.

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