29 October 2007 - What Darfur genocide?



The above photograph, at Daniel’s public gallery, was taken on Saturday near the Old South Church where Archbishop Desmond Tutu was addressing the Sabeel conference about Israel and apartheid. The demonstrators are not behaving inappropriately. In fact, their feelings exactly match those of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who recently accompanied Tutu on a visit to the Darfur region of Sudan.

Carter, who has defended his use of the word “apartheid” in his book Palestine Peace Not Apartheid, said of the term “genocide” in Darfur: “There is a legal definition of genocide and Darfur does not meet that legal standard. The atrocities were horrible but I do not think it qualifies to be called genocide.” Tutu, who was with Carter, apparently failed to correct him (though he would surely disagree with him).

The mainstream media—including the Jewish Telegraphic Agency—have described Tutu’s speech on Saturday as “an impassioned plea to the Jewish people to end Israel’s oppression.” The JTA report omits any mention of the fact that Tutu made his speech inside the Old South Church. All of the reports imply Tutu was speaking to Jews, when in fact he was speaking about Jews to an anti-Israel audience.

What the headlines should have said was: “Tutu accuses Jews of ‘fighting against God.’” Because that is exactly what he did, and that was the only newsworthy part of his entire wretched oration. The fact that the media has bent over backwards to spin Tutu’s words is something of a shock to me, though perhaps not to the readers of this blog. And certainly not to the people of Darfur, who are used to such deceit.