While visiting the US, Archbishop Desmond Tutu got op-ed space in the Boston Globe to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. How reasonable is his logic on comparing Israel to apartheid South Africa?
Some people are enraged by comparisons between the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and what happened in South Africa. There are differences between the two situations, but a comparison need not be exact in every feature to yield clarity about what is going on. Moreover, for those of us who lived through the dehumanizing horrors of the apartheid era, the comparison seems not only apt, it is also necessary. It is necessary if we are to persevere in our hope that things can change.
The comparisons aren’t close enough.
