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In light of the censorship of Bishop Desmond Tutu that we and other media outfits discussed last week, and the fact that Father Dennis Dease has reversed the decision to censor Bishop Tutu (though I have yet to hear if he also reversed his decision to demote Cris Toffolo from her position as Chair of the Justice and Peace Studies program for having dared to invite Tutu), I thought I’d bring you some followup commentary courtesy of the Minneapolis StarTribune.

There was this column in the 10/11/07 edition by Mitchell Plitnick and Cecilie Surasky of Jewish Voice for Peace, with passages like the following one:

Dease seems to have been motivated by a genuine desire to avoid hurting Minnesota’s Jewish community. However, he ended up not only making a wrong and unethical decision, but also hurting Jews everywhere and harming hopes for a more-enlightened American attitude toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

[...]

The controversy stems from a speech Tutu delivered in 2002. An extreme right-wing group, the Zionist Organization of America, issued a report that made it appear he had compared Israel to Hitler. In fact, Tutu said nothing of the kind. He merely listed numerous unjust regimes that have fallen, as he believes the occupation regime will fall. In the same speech, Tutu condemned acts of violence against Israelis and unambiguously supported Israel’s right to exist within secure borders.

Sadly, the misinformation about Tutu’s statements has become much more prominent than the man’s actual words.

We also have this letter by Rabbi Stacy Offner in the 10/09/07 edition:

A useful dialogue

I was dismayed to learn that the University of St. Thomas declined to invite Desmond Tutu to speak because it did not want to offend the Jewish community. What offends the Jewish community is the editing of free speech and the muzzling of free expression.

I am an unabashed “ohev tzion,” lover of Israel, but that love includes the strength to hear a critique of the Israeli government. It also includes the ability to disagree with Tutu on a variety of points and the wisdom to know that it is only through full and honest exploration of ideas that we can find our moral direction.

RABBI STACY OFFNER, MINNEAPOLIS;

SHIR TIKVAH CONGREGATION

Just thought you’d all like to know.

Oh, and by the way: Here’s what the Dease-approved Ann Coulter had to say about Jewish people recently. Something about “perfecting” them by making them, um, not Jewish any more. Now, what was that again about Bishop Tutu, Father?