Renowned Minnesota University Bans Questioning of Isreali Terror

Winner of a Nobel Peace Prize and former Archbishop of South Africa, Desmond Tutu was apparently banned from the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis because a handful of Jews in the area don't like what he has said, that for the most part has been directed at the Israeli government and their anti-American lobbies. The University's administration thought that his speaking the truth and questioning the wrongdoings of Israel was just too much.

St. Thomas is a Catholic university deep in their support for peace, and just about everyone affiliated with the school was pretty psyched about not just having someone like Tutu there, but hearing what he had to say. They had scheduled his appearance for this spring, but that now won't be happening. So why the hell would a Catholic university have a problem with it? Administration staff felt they had to make a few inquiries to local Jews to see what they thought about it, and not surprisingly the administration came away with the thought that merely Tutu's appearance there would offend them.

"We had heard some things he said that some people judged to be anti-Semitic and against Israeli policy," says Doug Hennes, St. Thomas's vice president for university and government relations. "We're not saying he's anti-Semitic. But he's compared the state of Israel to Hitler and our feeling was that making moral equivalencies like that are hurtful to some members of the Jewish community."

St. Thomas officials made this inference after Hennes talked to Julie Swiler, a spokeswoman for the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas.

"I told him that I'd run across some statements that were of concern to me," says Swiler. "In a 2002 speech in Boston, he made some comments that were especially hurtful."

This has been happening all over America for a long time, as noted by St. Thomas professor Cris Toffolo:

"What happened at the University of St. Thomas is not an isolated event," says Toffolo. "Until we have an honest debate about U.S. policy related to Israel, and about Israeli policy in the Occupied Territories, the spiral of violence will continue."

Now say what you want about Desmond Tutu or of the bad things that have happened to South Africa since the fall of the apartheid, but the man has made very valid points in the past on Israel, its lobbies, its policies, and its human rights violations over the years. He has refuted claims of being antisemitic (who hasn't) many times in the past, and the points themselves are never really attacked. There are some Jews however that are outraged at the banning of Tutu, but these groups are few and far between as usual.

The truth is every real American should be outraged at this. Everything Israel does effects us because of our 100% cooperative government and horribly bad foreign policy, and not even being able to discuss these things is just unacceptable. So it hurts their feelings. I for one don't give a shit, not to mention that they're probably lying. The truth hurts. And they don't like it, so they try to shut us up any way possible. It's long past time to shut up the Israel lobbies in America.