Statements

Statement from the Archbishop Tutu IP Trust

HUMANITARIAN AID UNDER ATTACK:
CITIZENS OF ISRAEL MUST CALL THEIR GOVERNMENT TO ORDER

The United Nations aid agency UNRWA has stopped delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza because its supply routes are not being protected by Israel, the occupying power.  This represents yet another fundamental transgression of the laws of war that the world body seems powerless to stop.

In a statement on Sunday, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, called on Israel to meet its obligations to “ensure aid flows into Gaza safely” and to “refrain from attacks on humanitarian workers”.

The US-based charity World Central Kitchen also paused its operations at the weekend after an Israeli airstrike killed three of its workers. In April, seven World Central Kitchen workers were killed in an Israeli drone strike that Israel later described as a mistake.

The  laws of war, also known as international humanitarian law, were developed after World War Two to set parameters for what can and can’t be done by parties to armed conflicts. The laws seek to minimize human suffering and protect civilians, the injured and prisoners of war.

They aimed to ensure that what led to the genocide of Jewish people would not happen again. What a cruel irony that the Israeli government that claims to be representatives of the descendants of survivors of that genocide are today perpetrators of the genocide in Gaza.

The world has witnessed unspeakable violations of human rights in Gaza over the past 14 months, including attacks on civilians, civilian infrastructure, and medical facilities. There are more child amputees in Gaza than anywhere else in the world.

Even so, for the State of Israel to decline to discharge its responsibilities to protect life-saving food, clothing and medical supplies, further torturing a people in their greatest ever time of need, is breaking new ground of inhumanity.

The State of Israel’s war-machine is running amok, bristling with US and EU-supplied arms, and bullet proofed from being held to international account by the United States’ veto power at the United Nations. 

The State of Israel’s uncontrite responses to South Africa’s genocide charges at the International Court of Justice, and the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court, confirm its contempt for both global opinion and global instruments.

The people who are best-placed to stop the State of Israel’s calamitous actions are the people of Israel, many of whom have already had the courage to protest Prime Minister Netanyahu’s over-willing brutality.

Ten years ago the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu addressed a letter to citizens of Israel.

“It is becoming more and more clear that politicians and diplomats are failing to come up with answers, and that responsibility for brokering a sustainable solution to the crisis in the Holy Land rests with civil society and the people of Israel and Palestine themselves,” he said.

“My plea to the people of Israel is to see beyond the moment, to see beyond the anger at feeling perpetually under siege, to see a world in which Israel and Palestine can coexist – a world in which mutual dignity and respect reign.”

It is time for the people of Israel, of whom there are many who desire sustainable peace that only justice will deliver, to send Netanyahu a very clear message: “You don’t represent us!”

Signed: DR MAMPHELA RAMPHELE, Chairperson of the Archbishop Tutu IP Trust.

Ends…

Distributed by Oryx Media (Benny Gool 082 5566 556 / Roger Friedman).

Lawyers for the Archbishop Desmond Tutu IP Trust have addressed a letter to the CEO and Board of the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation with respect to the Foundation’s involvement in the Global Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy.

The letter informed the Foundation that participating in a US government funded event advocating for democracy, at a time that the US is supplying arms in support of the genocide in Palestine, and resolutely using its veto to block global consensus against the genocide at the UN, did not accord with Archbishop’s Tutu’s values.

“As you are aware, the Tutu IP Trust was established by the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who expressly recorded his wish that (the Trust) be established primarily to act as guardian and custodian of the intellectual property rights and legacy associated with Archbishop Tutu, and to support The Desmond and Leah Tutu Foundation NPC to achieve its objectives insofar as they relate to the Tutu IP,” the letter states.

“Although our client is aware that the Foundation does not support Israel’s war against the Palestinian people; that the Foundation is of the view that its participation in the WMD Assembly will not be perceived as expressing support for this war; and that the Foundation has taken some measures to mitigate this perception, such as its consultations with the Palestinian delegation and its intention to release a joint statement at the conclusion of the conference, our client is of the view that the Foundation’s participation, in an official capacity, at the WMD Assembly will nevertheless be perceived as support for the National Endowment for Democracy (‘NED’), and will therefore be regarded as insensitive to current global geopolitical events, and risk negative impacts to the Archbishop’s reputation, which forms part of the Tutu IP.”

The letter demanded that no Tutu-related IP be used in relation to the WMD Assembly, and the removal of the exhibition of Archbishop Tutu from the event.

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Distributed for Chairperson of the Archbishop Tutu IP Trust Dr Mamphela Ramphele by Oryx Media (Benny Gool 082 5566 556 / Roger Friedman 079 8966 899).

Statement from the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Intellectual Property Trust

UK banning Mandla Mandela over Palestine is deeply regrettable

The UK’s denial of a visa to Nkosi Zwelivelile “Mandla” Mandela over his unequivocal support for Palestine’s struggle for justice is deeply regrettable.

While the UK seeks to rationalize its ban on moral grounds – due to Mandela’s statements of support for Hamas and meetings with Hamas leaders – it is silent on the immorality of its own continuing support of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s genocidal actions.

When members of the apartheid government held meetings with members of the South African liberation movement, designated terrorists and engaged in armed struggle, they weren’t denied visas by the UK.

The late Archbishop Desmond Tutu navigation of morality in the Holy Land is instructive.

In 2014, after a flurry of Hamas rockets directed at Israel was met with a massive Israeli military response, Tutu pronounced himself opposed to Hamas’ use of violence against civilians, but unashamedly supportive of the rights of Palestinians to struggle for justice, dignity and sovereignty.

At a rally in Cape Town he had the crowd chant: “We are opposed to the injustice of the illegal occupation of Palestine. We are opposed to the indiscriminate killing in Gaza. We are opposed to the indignity meted out to Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks. We are opposed to violence perpetrated by all parties. But we are not opposed to Jews.”

He also famously advised: “If you want to make peace you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies”.

Mandela’s grandfather, the late Nelson Mandela put it similarly. He said that if you work with your enemy, “then he becomes your partner”.

If the UK views Mandla Mandela as an enemy, it should talk to him, not ban him.

Denying him a visa instead reflects the UK’s uncritical sponsorship of the State of Israel’s extermination plans for Gaza and the West Bank, and the completion of the land grabs that started with the Balfour Declaration in 1917 announcing the UK’s support of a national home for Jewish people in Palestine.

Although the UK government acknowledged 100 years later that the declaration should have called for the protection of Palestinians’ political rights, the UK remains a key sponsor of the State of Israel’s actions today.

Mandla Mandela is committed to the struggle for justice in the Holy Land, but he is not a terrorist. He is clear in his support for Palestinians, but he is not anti-Semitic. Nor does he supply any weapons or aid to fuel the conflict, as the UK and US do.

The unbridled violence that Israel has authored in Palestine since Hamas’ 7 October 2023 incursion and seizure of hostages is now spreading across the Middle East region.

It is time to talk, and to listen; to return prisoners and hostages; to return illegally occupied land; for the killing and destruction on both sides to stop. This is not the time to reinforce binary geopolitical positions  or shut down voices with which we don’t agree.

The people of Israel and Palestine yearn for peace, but there can be no peace without justice.

The UK should reconsider its position.

Signed by: Dr Mamphela Ramphele, Chair of the Archbishop Desmond Tutu IP Trust

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Distributed from Desmond & Leah Tutu House by Oryx Media.
Call Benny Gool +27 82 5566 556 or Roger Friedman +27 79 8966 899.

Statement from Dr Mamphela Ramphele, Chairperson of the Archbishop Tutu IP Trust.

The Archbishop Tutu IP Trust has instructed its lawyers to withdraw the Archbishop’s permission to call its Marabastad refugee centre, in Pretoria, the “Desmond Tutu Refugee Reception Centre”.

This follows raids by the SIU and Hawks at various refugee facilities across the country last week, which made it apparent that the country’s management of refugees from neighbouring countries remains a hive of corruption.

In 2016, Archbishop Tutu agreed to the use of his name after being informed by the Department of Home Affairs that its Marabastad facility was undergoing a turnaround strategy on the principle that refugees deserved protection, access to social services, and to be treated in a fair and humane manner.

The Department specifically undertook: “To manage the Centre to the highest standards and inculcate a spirit of Ubuntu throughout our service delivery.”

The agreement between the Archbishop and the Department allows for the withdrawal of use of the Tutu name where there is reasonable possibility that such use may impair the Archbishop’s reputation.

Since 2016, the Marabastad facility has periodically been in the news for all the wrong reasons, including alleged human rights violations and corruption.

In 2018, after a spate of negative publicity led to his office writing to the Department for an explanation, and issuing a press statement, the Archbishop said: “I hope it attracts attention to the awful conditions. Of course I had hoped it would be a refugee friendly facility.”

The head of Lawyers for Human Rights was quoted by SABC over the weekend saying the country’s refugee status determination process has “completely collapsed”, which created loopholes for the extraction of money by corrupt officials.

The Archbishop established the Archbishop Tutu IP Trust in 2019, with responsibilities to manage name rights, trademarks, copyrights and permissions in perpetuity.

Associating the Archbishop with the shenanigans of an ill-managed and corrupt refugee system besmirches his name and is wholly inappropriate. 

After the advent of democracy, and the revelations of brutality laid bare at South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, some of our white compatriots claimed to have been unaware of the extent of the barbarity because they had been shielded from the truth by state censorship.

As a strategy, however, censorship failed to contain the truth seeping out, and South Africa being regarded as the skunk of the world.

Yet that appears to be the model the State of Israel has embraced by banning Al Jazeera ahead of its plan to escalate the violence in Gaza by invading Rafah.

Israel’s contempt of journalists and free speech will not stop the demand for justice for Palestinians.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, as of 3 May 2024, at least 97 journalists has been killed in Palestine since 7 October, four were missing and 25 had been injured.

Now Israel is tightening the screws on press freedom, announcing that Al Jazeera is to be closed down in Israel.

With Gaza under a blockade, preventing international journalists from entering and reporting from the territory, Al Jazeera journalists have played a critical role getting news from the ground in Gaza to the outside world, including to Israelis. Largely due to its journalists, the world has been able to witness Israel’s genocidal actions at close quarters.

Israel’s war on Gaza, in retaliation to Hamas’ invasion last October – in which approximately 1200 Israelis died and 250 were taken hostage – has thus far claimed the lives of approximately 35 000 Palestinians, while destroying most Gazan infrastructure. 

According to the World Food Programme, starvation is already entrenched in northern Gaza and “moving its way south”.

Shutting Al Jazeera down now, on the eve of Israel’s stated plan to invade the southern Palestine city of Rafah – where more than a million Palestinians from the north have sought shelter – is tantamount to spitting in the face of the global effort for a secession of hostilities and negotiations toward a sustainable solution.

As organisations representing the legacies of iconic South Africans once demonised by media for prosecuting the anti-apartheid struggle, we call on the people of Israel to defend journalism and reject censorship.

It is critical for the people of Palestine and Israel to see the humanity in each other. Censorship deliberately denies this opportunity.

We call for ceasefire and negotiations towards a settlement that creates sustainable peace for both Israelis and Palestinians.

Signed by:

Dr Mamphela Ramphele
Chairperson of the Archbishop Tutu IP Trust;

and

Mr Neeshan Balton
Executive Director of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation

Statement from Desmond & Leah Tutu House

US “moral outrage” over Israeli war tactics, while continuing to supply the weapons, lacks conviction and compassion

This week’s killing of six foreign aid workers by the Israeli Defence Force reportedly led US President Joe Biden to rebuke Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu, and has drawn the concession by Israel of opening two additional border crossings to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.

While allowing any extra aid into Gaza must be applauded, opening a couple of border crossings is insufficient to meet the needs of Palestinians who continue to be attacked with weapons paid for by US taxpayers.

And it contributes all but nothing to preventing the conflict in Palestine from spreading to other countries in the region, which appears increasingly inevitable.

The targeting of foreign aid workers should be condemned in the strongest terms, but so too should the fact that the Israel Defence has claimed the lives of 200 Palestinian aid workers over the past six months, 170 of them working for the United Nations.

So, too, should the unprecedented numbers of women, children, teachers, doctors and journalists who have been killed in Israel’s bombardment be condemned.

So, too, should the bombing of hospitals and use of starvation as a tactic of war be condemned.

This weekend marks the six-month anniversary of Hamas’ deadly 7 October attack on Israel in which more than 1100 people died, many of them civilians. Hamas returned to Gaza with approximately 250 hostages, of whom 130 are still believed to be in captivity. While Hamas has the right to struggle for Palestine’s freedom, its tactics on 7 October were deplorable.

Israel unequivocally has the right to defend its citizens from such events, but this right does not extend to committing acts of genocide and crimes against humanity.

Israel must be held accountable for the disproportionality and illegality of its response.

With the world teetering on the edge of environmental calamity, having just emerged from a pandemic that scientists predict won’t be the last, human beings should be increasingly conscious of their inter-dependence.

Instead, powerful nations continue to act to advance their own geo-political interests and perpetuate inequality.

We applaud those nations, organisations and individuals – in many countries – who have joined South Africa’s condemnation of Israel’s genocidal strategies.

The pressure for an immediate ceasefire must be intensified.

Signed by:

Dr Mamphela Ramphele: Chairperson of the Archbishop Tutu IP Trust;
and
Ms Janet Jobson: CEO of the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation

* Statement released by Benny Gool (082 5566556) and Roger Friedman 079 8966899, on behalf of: Desmond & Leah Tutu House. Buitenkant Street, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa

What Israel is doing in Gaza is not exercising its right to defend its citizens, as it says. It is exacting collective revenge against the civilian population of Palestine that will reverberate long after it withdraws its troops and stops the bombing.

The fact that world leaders are too consumed by narrow geopolitical agendas to be able to agree on a UN resolution calling for ceasefire is an abomination. 

Genocide is not a word to be loosely bandied about. 

In 1948, the same year that the State of Israel was established, the United Nations Genocide Convention defined genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.

It described five such acts, the presence of only one of which is sufficient to meet the definition: Killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children out of the group.

When you see the sustained bombing of civilian neighborhoods; the piles of injured and dead, including so many young ones; the anguish on the faces of parents; the withholding of water, electricity, medical supplies and fuel to the point that mothers are undergoing caesarians without anesthetics because there aren’t any; and the children being scarred for life…

When you consider that Gazans are being told to move for their own safety, without fuel to put into their cars, while the roads are being bombed, and traditionally safe spaces such as hospitals, schools, mosques and churches are being bombed…

When you know that critically needed medical supplies are blocked at the border, that trauma specialists are denied access to treat injured patients, that doctors in Gaza are forced to watch people die on the floor because there are no supplies to treat injuries, there can be no doubt that Israel’s actions in Gaza meet the definition of genocide.

As the late Archbishop Tutu said, the Holy Land is no ordinary piece of real estate. It is the center of the world for adherents of the Muslim, Jewish and Christian faiths. And a symbol of intractable human conflict for everyone else. What happens there reverberates, across the Middle East and throughout the world. It creates a rationale for hatred, division and violence.

Human beings don’t operate in a vacuum. Acknowledging our dependence on each other mitigates our vulnerabilities. When we believe we are invulnerable, regardless of what we do to others, we are in fact at our weakest. 

The people of Israel and Palestine depend on each other for peace that won’t come through the barrels of Israeli Defence Force or Hamas guns… Peace that is beyond the realm of extremist leaders.

The people of Israel and Palestine are crying out for help, but the UN’s hands are tied in a knot of vetoes. It’s had its hands tied and re-tied for more than 70 years. How many more children must die while the world watches on TV and does nothing to stop it?

We add our voice to those of global civil society calling for an immediate ceasefire and dialogue towards the establishment of a Holy Land where both Jews and Palestinians can live in peace as a human community.

Statement from Dr Mamphela Ramphele, Chair of the Archbishop Desmond Tutu IP Trust