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- WORLD, Page 47World NotesISRAELThe Outspoken Pilgrim
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- He called it a Christmas pilgrimage to the Holy Land. But
- Archbishop Desmond Tutu has never allowed his religious calling
- to prevent him from actively engaging in politics in South
- Africa, his home, and he behaved no differently abroad. To the
- studied discomfort of the Israeli government, which maintains
- close ties to Pretoria, Tutu used his visit to the Jewish state
- to air some outspokenly pro-Palestinian views.
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- He voiced support for "the struggle of the Palestinians to
- have a Palestinian state," implicitly backing the two-year-old
- intifadeh. He spoke of "worrisome parallels" between conditions
- in the Israeli-occupied territories and South Africa's black
- townships. And he outraged Jewish sensibilities by urging
- Israelis to forgive those responsible for the Holocaust. Most
- Israeli officials declined to meet with Tutu, accusing him of
- harboring anti-Jewish prejudices. Protestors scrawled "black
- Nazi pig" on the wall of the church where Tutu was staying.
- Said the Archbishop: "If I am accused of being antiSemitic,
- tough luck."
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