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Christians Against Israel

Tutu comes to judge


By Stan Goodenough
May 29, 2008

Liberation Theology proponent and Nobel Peace Laureate Desmond Tutu Thursday departed the Gaza Strip after a two-day "fact-finding" mission, as a result of which he reportedly plans to condemn Israel for a 2006 "massacre" of Arabs by the IDF.

A South African national who holds the rank of archbishop in the Anglican Church, and who has for years nurtured a pro-Arab position, Tutu was invited by the "Palestinians" to investigate the alleged Israeli shelling of a Beit Hanoun home in which 18 members of a family were killed.

Israel's refusal to grant him a "transit" visa forced the cleric to enter Gaza via the Egyptian border into the Strip.

Speaking at a news conference, the self-proclaimed judge said he would be presenting a report on Israel's behavior to the United Nations so-called Human Rights Council in Geneva come September.

"We are at the stage of shock... by what we subsequently heard from the survivors of the November (2006) Beit Hanoun massacre," Tutu said, according to Ynetnews.

He intended to "make recommendations to protect Palestinian civilians from further Israeli assaults [sic]."

Israel maintains that, while firing in response to unrelenting rocket attacks on its civilians in the Negev, a number of its shells fell short of their intended targets due to technical faults.

Following the tragedy, the IDF immediately suspended the use of artillery against rocket launching sites, and has since resorted to airstrikes to try and stop the terrorism.

Gaza's Arabs have launched more than 5000 rockets at Israeli towns and farms in recent years in a daily bid to deliberately kill and maim civilian men, women and children.

The rockets are purposely fired from Arab population centers like Beit Hanoun in order to provide cover for Hamas and other terrorists or bring about civilian casualties whose deaths are effectively used to keep international opinion harshly against Israel.

While in Gaza, Tutu held meetings with Hamas terror chief Ismail Haniyeh.

The South African said afterwards he had told Haniyeh that the launching of rockets against Israel was "a gross violation of human rights."

But Tutu made no mention of any plans to report to the UN on the numerous atrocities perpetrated by Haniyeh's men.

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