Statements

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

In the shocked silence immediately following the 9/11 attacks, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu prayed that the United States’ response would not be on the same level of awfulness as that of the attackers.

The Archbishop said it was his hope that the United States would pause for a moment of navel-gazing, and ask: What have we done, or not done, to provoke people to hate us with this level of intensity?

A few days later, the US invaded Afghanistan. Nearly 50 000 civilians lost their lives. No sooner had the US finally pulled out, 20 years later, the Taliban party that it so fiercely opposed was restored to power.

Forty-eight hours after Hamas’ horrendous attacks on Israeli civilians on Saturday, the media was already broadcasting visuals of the Israeli Air Force pounding Gaza.

Israel’s defence minister had ordered a “complete siege” of Gaza, which entailed holding all Palestinians living in Gaza equally and collectively responsible for Hamas’ actions.

Ordinary Palestinians not connected to terrorism in any shape or form are being punished by military bombardment and the withdrawal of basic services. Families are being forced to abandon their homes leaving their worldly possessions behind.

There are no winners in this scenario; only losers. Not just the loss of lives and possessions, but the hardening of people’s hearts – perhaps for another generation.

Disasters spawn opportunities. The State of Israel has the opportunity either to respond to the Hamas atrocity by perpetrating more extreme violence, as it is doing, or by breaking the cycle of violence and committing itself to a new path of justice founded on the principle of human inter-dependence and mutual respect. 

It has the opportunity to ask itself why much of the world describes it as an apartheid state, and what it is doing that provokes violence – and contributes to consigning its own citizens to living their lives in a perpetual state of fear.

10 October 2023

* This statement was released by Dr Mamphela Ramphele, Chairperson of the Archbishop Tutu Intellectual Property Trust.

Statement from the chairs: Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation and Archbishop Tutu IP Trust

“We all lose out on the great beauty of human diversity when we make it seem that access to God’s love is conditional.”  

Muslim Judicial Council’s “guidelines on same-sex relationships” regrettable

People’s faith exists in the context of their time, and it is important to recognise that although all major religions are rooted in ancient scriptures, the contexts of their prescripts has changed dramatically over the centuries. The development of peoples’ consciousness of the concept of human rights has led to a clear change in religious practices – one is unlikely to find religions advocating for stoning and beating wrongdoers, beating one’s spouse, or not mixing threads of different kinds. 

The process of globalisation, and global existential crises such as climate change and Covid, is leading to an increasing understanding of human inter-dependence. If we truly understand ourselves as interdependent – as only being fully human through our relationships and connections with others – it requires of us the growth of new capabilities for tolerance and inclusion. In particular we need to find a new ability to recognise, and celebrate, those regarded as “other” to us, by virtue of their colour, class, gender, culture, spiritual belief or sexual orientation.

Archbishop Tutu taught, God is not a Christian, nor a homophobe. But across many religions, homophobia remains ever-present – in the behaviour of congregations, or individual people of faith; and often in the leadership of those religions. 

Those who lead their lives according to the prescripts of any particular faith rely on the leaders of their faith to navigate the intersection of traditional scholarly authorities and to place in the context of changing times the ‘Golden Rule’ of all religions – that we should treat people as we would like to be treated. That we should embrace the fullness of all people’s humanity.

In that context, the publication by South Africa’s Muslim Judicial Council of guidelines on same-sex relationships, stating that those who engage in the sin of same-sex relationships have “taken themselves out of the fold of Islam”, and that “our religion teaches us to hate the sin, not the sinner”, is deeply regrettable. 

This view is by no means unique to the Muslim congregations of South Africa. In fact, the Archbishop was so incensed by homophobia within his own church that he declared he would not worship a homophobic God. And that if Heaven was homophobic, he would rather “go to that other place”. 

The notion of Ubuntu – that I am, because you are – means that we are all worse off for making members of our society twist themselves into unnatural, closeted, versions of themselves to please the dictates of religious leaders. We all lose out on the great beauty of human diversity when we make it seem that access to God’s love is conditional.  

Archbishop Tutu viewed all human beings as sisters and brothers of one family, regardless of how they looked or behaved… the human family, God’s family. A family to which we all belong.

Speaking of the treatment of gay people in the Church in South Africa, the Arch noted in his foreword to the 1997 book, Aliens in the Household of God: Homosexuality and Christian Faith in South Africa.

“We make them doubt that they are children of God, and this must nearly be the ultimate blasphemy.”

Ends…

 * Mr Niclas Kjellstrom-Matseke is Chairperson of the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation. Dr Mamphela Ramphele is Chairperson of the Archbishop Tutu IP Trust.

Statement from Dr Mamphela Ramphele, Chairperson of the Archbishop Tutu IP Trust, and Mr Niclas Kjellstrom-Matseke, Chairperson of the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation

INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANISATIONS WHO FOMENT XENOPHOBIC VIOLENCE MUST BE PROSECUTED FOR HATE CRIMES

Populist politicians seeking to fuel and exploit anxieties that undocumented migrant workers are the cause of widespread poverty, unemployment and crime in South Africa must be prosecuted for inciting violence and hate speech.

The State has a tiny window of opportunity to demonstrate it is in control of the country, failing which it will have to accept full responsibility for another bloody episode of xenophobic-based violence and destruction.

South Africa has struggled for more than a decade to contain intermittent outbreaks of violence targeting African migrants and refugees. But instead of taking the necessary steps to reform the country’s immigration policies, and the management thereof, the State has allowed the wounds to fester.

This laissez-faire approach, in an extended era of economic hardship, worsened by Covid, has created a lethal cocktail that opportunists are queuing up to exploit.

The language and actions of several South African political and vigilante leaders in the recent past is chillingly reminiscent of the tactics used to spread bigotry and hatred of the Tutsi in the build-up to what became known as the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

There, the Tutsi were labelled cockroaches. Here, African immigrants are termed makwerekwere(apparently an onomatopoeic word describing the unintelligible sound foreigners make when speaking their own languages).

Among other signals of rising tension in recent months, South Africans have witnessed politicians visiting restaurants to check the nationality of workers, conducting door-to-door checks in residential neighbourhoods, and a clear pattern of increasingly organised vigilantism.

This week, in his inaugural speech, a newly elected district mayor in the Western Cape described illegal immigrants as a “stain”, promised citizens’ arrests, and said the Central Karoo would become “an illegal immigrant-free zone”.

These developments are the antithesis of Ubuntu and a denial of the central teaching of Archbishop Tutu about the relationships between justice, equal rights and human inter-dependence.

At the same time as taking the necessary legal steps to stop hate speech and the incitement of violence, and arresting those who engage in vigilantism, the State must demonstrate leadership by:

1.     Committing itself to a set of realistic deadlines to reform the country’s immigration policies, and management thereof; and

2.     Convening a summit of government, labour and industry to discuss means to encourage large employers to prioritise local, above migrant, labour.

Few countries on earth have open border policies allowing for the undocumented flow of individuals in and out of their sovereign territory.

Considering, among other things, however, that most countries’ borders were relatively arbitrarily drawn to suit the whims of colonial powers, South Africa’s historic use of “external” labour (slavery, indentured and migrant), and the support of South African refugees and exiles by the country’s neighbours during the apartheid era, a nuanced and human approach to the country’s immigration policy is required.

Citizens of neighbouring countries fleeing conflict or socio-economic ruin should be entitled to apply to live and work in South Africa and, if granted permission, should be entitled to safety, dignity and respect. 

Allowing migrant workers unhindered access to the country, and leaving them to compete for space, jobs and business with destitute and relatively unmotivated South Africans in the poorest of the poor communities, is not doing anybody any favors. It is unsafe, undignified and unsustainable.

So is the fact that labour brokers supply migrant labour to large employers – including, seasonally, to farmers – while much of South Africa’s so-called working class sits jobless in shacks on the edges of our towns.

If the State fails to act, the void in leadership will be filled (is already being filled) by hate-mongers and vigilantes.

28 March 2022

Statement from the Archbishop Tutu IP Trust…

The monumental task of making the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s body of work publicly accessible for posterity has begun.

While the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation last week launched the Truth to Power exhibition in Cape Town, the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Intellectual Property Trust has begun uploading a wide-ranging and little-known series of television messages recorded by the Archbishop over the years onto a specially created YouTube site.

The recordings made for events that the Archbishop couldn’t attend in person encompass:

The personal (such as birthday wishes for President Mandela, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Queen Rania), to Support for non-profit organisations (the Cancer Association and Hospice and Palliative Care Association, for example), to Activism (calls for justice in the Holy Land, against xenophobia, in support of women in Myanmar etc).

“Most of the messages are unknown beyond the audiences who attended the events for which they were recorded. They are special because they speak to the Archbishop’s super-sized sense of pastoral duty. The subject matter is diverse; each message a strand in a complex tapestry revealing a whole human being,” said chairperson of the Trust Dr Mamphela Ramphele.

“We speak of technology having reduced the world to a global village. The Archbishop understood that a village built on foundations of inequality, bullying, nationalism and injustice was undesirable and unsustainable.

“He understood the primacy of our inter-dependence, as human beings. He embodied the yearning of many people for a new approach to leadership based on shared human values of equality, compassion and sustainable custodianship of the earth,” Dr Ramphele said.

The first batch of 70 messages have been linked to the Trust’s website (www.tutuiptrust.org) – with hundreds more to be loaded. To access the material click on the tab, In His Own Words.

“We know of about 500 of these messages recorded over the last 20 years of the Archbishop’s life, which will be posted online. We also know that there are messages we don’t know of. At some point in the process, we’ll be putting out a call for people who know the whereabouts of additional messages to contact us with the view to our developing a fully comprehensive resource,” Dr Ramphele said.

“The television messages are but one strand of the archive we must build to ensure that the Archbishop’s teaching and wisdom is available to scholars, historians, theologians and leaders now and forever,” Dr Ramphele said.

“There are important collections of his sermons, letters and speeches housed in various academic institutions, locally and internationally, and the Legacy Foundation has gathered together and collated a large quantity of artefacts.

“We have a vast job ahead of us weaving the strands together, physically and virtually, to present a full and usable archive of the Archbishop’s work for generations to come – his heirloom for humanity.

The Archbishop Desmond Tutu Intellectual Property Trust, incorporating the Office of the Founders, was established by Archbishop and Mrs Tutu to act as legal guardian and custodian of their intellectual property rights and legacy. They wanted to free the Foundation of the burden of running their personal office and affairs, and allow it to focus on programmes and projects to keep the Founders’ work relevant and alive.

Ends…