What do you think of Israel's refusal to let Bishop Tutu entry into that country?

Question

Geneva - Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu said on Monday that the Israeli government's failure to permit a fact-finding mission to investigate Israeli-Palestinian violence was "very distressing". 

"We find the lack of co-operation by the Israeli government very distressing, as well as its failure to allow the missing timely passage to Israel," said Tutu after UN officials said Israel had blocked his UN fact-finding mission to the Gaza Strip. 

Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson Mark Regev said on Monday that no final decision has been made. 

"Israel heard that they decided not to come. We had not given them a negative response, our final decision was pending," said Regev. 

"At times not making a decision is making a decision," said Tutu. 

He said he had accepted the mission on behalf of the UN human rights council "at short notice". 

Investigating killings 

"We cancelled important commitments to make ourselves available for this task and to submit a report by mid-December to the council," said Tutu, adding that to take up the mission he had left the bedside of his wife, who was in a hospital following a knee operation. 

Because of the failure of Israel to approve the mission in time, the mission team had to cancel its appointments in Israel and the Gaza Strip with people involved in the conflict. 

Tutu was to begin leading a six-member team during the past weekend in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun to investigate the killings of 19 civilians in an Israeli artillery barrage last month. 

But Israel refused to grant the South African anti-apartheid campaigner the necessary travel clearance, said officials in two separate UN departments who spoke on condition of anonymity before Tutu spoke. 

Tutu's team was supposed to report its findings to the UN human rights council by Friday. 

It is unclear if the Jewish state will allow the fact-finding mission to take place at a later date. 

Weeklong incursion 

Israeli officials have expressed concern that Tutu's mission was only entrusted with investigating alleged human rights violations committed by Israel, and not also by Palestinian militants. 

The 47-nation council authorised the mission last month, asking Tutu to assess the situation of victims, address the needs of survivors and make recommendations on ways to protect Palestinian civilians against further Israeli attacks. 

The shelling, which Israel said was unintended, came after its troops wound up a weeklong incursion meant to curb Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel from the town. 

Palestinian militants frequently use Beit Hanoun as a staging ground for their rocket attacks on Israel. 

"We had a problem not with the personalities, we had a problem with the institution," said Regev. 

"We saw a situation whereby the human rights mechanism of the UN was being cynically exploited to advance an anti-Israel agenda. 

This would do the Israelis, the Palestinians and peace in the Middle East no good at all. This would also have done nothing to serve the interest of human rights

Tinkerbell05 · Accepted Answer

Well Olmert said they don't need any UN investigation...And he asked why UN is sending someone to investigate what happened to Beit Hanoun if they've already APOLOGIZED for the death of those people...It seems that in Olmert's perfect world killing someone and apologizing makes everything OK...
Who knows what they could have found there that wouldn't have looked so good for Israel,so of course they didn't allowed Tutu to enter the country...
And unfortunately the UN simply accepts Israel's refusal...

nomolino · Answer

What's the point of the commission if its findings were known before it was established? Bishop Tutu had already called the Beit Hanoun incident an "outrage that cries out to heaven" that "we must condemn.", and was presumably elected to head the commission exactly because of his stance.

mo mosh · Answer

It's a relief that Israel isn't totally crazy. 

Tutu is a vicious anti-Semite. 

Why in the world would Israel let this hateful man into its country to write some flaky bias report.

Anonymous · Answer

Tutu already "knows" the results of such an investigation.  He is a declared enemy of Israel.  Why let your enemies investigate you?

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. addressed this question.  He stated:

". . . You declare, my friend, that you do not hate the Jews, you are merely 'anti-Zionist.' And I say, let the truth ring forth from the high mountain tops, let it echo through the valleys of God's green earth: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews--this is God's own truth.

"Antisemitism, the hatred of the Jewish people, has been and remains a blot on the soul of mankind. In this we are in full agreement. So know also this: anti-Zionist is inherently anti-Semitism, and ever will be so.

"Why is this? You know that Zionism is nothing less than the dream and ideal of the Jewish people returning to live in their own land. The Jewish people, the Scriptures tell us, once enjoyed a flourishing Commonwealth in the Holy Land. From this they were expelled by the Roman tyrant, the same Romans who cruelly murdered Our Lord. Driven from their homeland, their nation in ashes, forced to wander the globe, the Jewish people time and again suffered the lash of whichever tyrant happened to rule over them.

"The ***** people, my friend, know what it is to suffer the torment of tyranny under rulers not of our choosing. Our brothers in Africa have begged, pleaded, requested--DEMANDED the recognition and realization of our inborn right to live in peace under our own sovereignty in our own country.

"How easy it should be, for anyone who holds dear this inalienable right of all mankind, to understand and support the right of the Jewish People to live in their ancient Land of Israel. All men of good will exult in the fulfillment of God's promise, that his People should return in joy to rebuild their plundered land.

"This is Zionism, nothing more, nothing less.

"And what is anti-Zionist? It is the denial to the Jewish people of a fundamental right that we justly claim for the people of Africa and freely accord all other nations of the Globe. It is discrimination against Jews, my friend, because they are Jews. In short, it is antisemitism."

Anonymous · Answer

It just highlights that 'Israel' (PLEASE NOTE, not "the Jews"!!) is carrying on in its brutal, arrogant, behaviour.
"Secure" in US protection (like the Iraqi Government?), Israel will continue the sort of persecution of the Palestinians that it has been carrying out since 1948, rejecting world opinion and - often - "civilsed" standards.
Carrying out the sort of treatment that, if done to Israelis (or Jews), would see the Israli Government screaming for world help against persecution!

morrell · Answer

you could visit some Muslim international places at the same time as you could't visit others. With an Israeli stamp on your passport, you could visit: United Arab Emirates Egypt Jordan Oman Morocco you could't visit: Syria Lebanon Libya Kuwait Iran Iraq Pakistan Saudi Arabia Sudan Yemen about getting the stamp on a separate piece of paper, this actually works if you're flying into Israel. if you're going over land, eg from Taba, Egypt to Israel, having the Israeli border guards stamp a separate piece of paper gained't paintings because the go out stamp from Egypt will educate that you crossed over into Israel. also, in case you be sure to pass from Israel to Jordan over land, the Jordan get admission to stamp will educate that you got here from Israel. in case you do plan to visit any of the places on the 'no go' list once you visit Israel, and also you've an Israeli stamp, you could continuously get yet another passport. KC

as a · Answer

they wiil go down

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What do you think of Israel's refusal to let Bishop Tutu entry into that country?

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