Desmond Tutu, who likened Israel to Hitler, to lead UN Beit Hanoun probe
By Israel Insider staff and partners November 30, 2006
Archbishop Desmond Tutu has been named to head a United Nations fact-finding mission to the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, where 19 civilians were killed by a misfired Israeli artillery shell earlier this month, UN officials said Wednesday.
Tutu, who has compared Israel to Hitler in the past, has made numerous public statements that many acknowledge to be borderline anti-Semitism while others claim to be anti-Semitism outright.
In 2002, Tutu told a Boston audience that, "People are scared in this country [the US], to say wrong is wrong because the Jewish lobby is powerful - very powerful."
Tutu, a devout Anglican, also once remarked in an interview concerning US policy that "the West can go to hell."The South African anti-apartheid campaigner and former Anglican archbishop of Cape Town will travel to Gaza to "assess the situation of victims, address the needs of survivors, and make recommendations on ways and means to protect Palestinian civilians against further Israeli assaults," according to the president of the UN Human Rights Council, Luis Alfonso De Alba.
The mission will report its findings to the Geneva-based body by mid-December, the statement said.
The shelling, which Israel said was unintended, came after Israeli troops wound up a weeklong incursion meant to curb Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel from the town, which the Israeli army said was a rocket-launching stronghold.
Desmond Tutu, who likened Israel to Hitler, to lead UN Beit Hanoun probe
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