In an effort to discredit the Israeli state by accusing it of apartheid practices against Palestinians, the North American offshoot of a Jerusalem-based anti-Israel organization held a conference in Boston featuring Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Archbishop Tutu, a world-renowned figure in the fight against apartheid in South Africa, appealed to Jews to stand up against what he called Israeli oppression of Palestinians.  During his keynote address at the Friends of Sabeel in North America conference, Tutu not only likened Palestinian oppression to South African Apartheid, he also charged that the separation fence is an "illegal wall that has encroached on Palestinian land," and that Israel employs practices that "even apartheid South Africa had not…for example collective punishment."

Tutu then made reference to the Holocaust, urging Jews to remember "what happened to you in Egypt and much more recently in Germany."  He warned Jews that if they disobey what he believes God's will is, they will one day "implode."

Tutu applied the Exodus story to Palestinian suffering, offering up his own interpretation of Jewish biblical standards and then applying it to contemporary Jews and the modern Jewish state.

Tutu also condemned terrorism of any form and stated his support for a two-state solution. Tutu has previously compared Israeli policy to apartheid and called for international divestment from Israel.

Friends of Sabeel in North America is the U.S.-based affiliate of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center.  It held its conference, titled, "The Apartheid Paradigm in Palestine-Israel: Issues of Justice and Equality," at Old South Church on October 26-27, 2007.

Promoting the "Apartheid Paradigm"

The main purpose of the Sabeel conference was to liken Israeli practices in the Palestinian territories to those of apartheid South Africa. Naim Ateek, Sabeel's co-founder and director, suggested that living conditions for Palestinians may be worse than those of blacks under apartheid rule and said that no lasting peace is possible until Palestinians receive justice under international law. "The occupation, my friends, is evil, and it must end," he said, promoting boycott and sanctions efforts against Israel as a means to ending Israel's "racism."

Like Tutu, Ateek also condemned violence from both sides and expressed support for a two-state solution during his speech. Still, Ateek routinely conducts presentations on Sabeel's theologically-based rejection of the Zionism, and has in the past referred to the two-state solution as "a first step that hopefully will lead to the formation of the one state."

It is not unusual for Sabeel conferences to feature speakers who make similar charges of Israeli racism, oppression, and human rights violations, often promoting boycott and sanctions efforts as punishment for what they see as Israel's apartheid-like policies. Other speakers at the event included:

• Phyllis Bennis, co-founder and steering committee member of US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (UCE), who argued that Israeli policies are designed to suppress one racial group while favoring another, and demanded an end to the U.S.' "unconditional support for Israeli apartheid." 

• Jeff Halper, member of the International Solidarity Movement and coordinating director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, who stated that Israel's policies are in some ways worse than those of apartheid South Africa, and argued that while Israel is often portrayed as the victim in the conflict, Palestinians are the ones "locked into a cage." 

• Noura Erekat, former grassroots organizer/legal advocate for the UCE, who now works with the Government Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on domestic policy, and who argued that Israel has "transformed itself into an apartheid state," in part by promoting a race-based agenda and sanctioning "discrimination and inequality by law." She further defended the apartheid paradigm as providing guidance on how to dismantle Israel's apartheid-like practices.

The apartheid analogy is often used by critics of Israel, who argue that like apartheid South Africa, Israel is a colonial state whose laws and institutions enforce the subservient status of the indigenous population. Like white domination in apartheid South Africa, they claim, Jewish domination, in the form of the State of Israel, should be dismantled.

By presenting perceived similarities between Israeli and apartheid practices, Sabeel hoped to educate attendees on the comparison and, more specifically, to arm Christian supporters with the information they need to "challenge church leaders who in turn can challenge political leaders," according to Sister Elaine Kelley, a Friends of Sabeel administrative officer. 

This attempt to engage Boston's Christian community in a one-sided dialogue about Israel is reflective of Sabeel's broader efforts to spread its anti-Zionist theology. With hundreds of attendees, the conference was the latest and the largest in a series of Sabeel-organized events that featured strong anti-Israel themes, just as its publications and Web site do. This year, Sabeel has held similar but smaller-scale events in Birmingham, Cleveland, and Berkeley, California.

Conference sponsors included a who's who of groups traditionally involved in anti-Israel events, including the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee-Massachusetts; American Friends Service Committee; Jewish Voice for Peace-Boston, Islamic Society of Boston; Middle East Children's Alliance; Muslim American Society-Boston; and UCE.

Pro-Israel protesters demonstrated across the street from the church both days of the conference, while a rally held in solidarity took place the second afternoon.