Desmond Tutu Nominates Palestinian Mass-Murderer for Nobel Prize

South African archbishop says Marwan Barghouti

- jailed for masterminding suicide attacks -

is a 'defender of human rights.'

By Ari Soffer, Aretz Sheva


Marwan Barghouti - Reuters

South African archbishop and prominent anti-Israel campaigner Desmond Tutu has joined other activists in nominating imprisoned Palestinian arch-terrorist Marwan Barghouti for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Tutu tabled the nomination in a letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee on Monday - cited by Al Arabiya - in which he hailed the Fatah-Tanzim commander as a symbol of the "struggle for freedom, [which] constitutes a clear signal of support for the realization of the Palestinian people’s inalienable rights, including to self-determination."

Desmond Tutu is a longtime anti-Israel activist, and is a member of the "International High Level Committee of the Campaign for the freedom of Barghouti and all Palestinian prisoners."

Barghouti was jailed for five life terms in 2002, for masterminding scores of deadly suicide bombing attacks on Israeli civilian targets during the Second Intifada. But many anti-Israel activists still tout him as a symbol of "nonviolent resistance," and label him a "political prisoner."

In his letter, Tutu characterized Barghouti's actions as fighting "for freedom and peace," and - even more ironically - hailed the mass-murderer as "an active advocate and defender of democracy and human rights, include women's rights, and of pluralism, both religious and political, in a region and a world that desperately needs such advocates."

The victims of Barghouti's attacks and the countless grieving relatives he left behind would likely beg to differ.

An advocate and defender of rights as long as they don't include Jewish right to life. Is Tutu in this for the money or the prestige? He is certainly not in it for the truth. He has accepted the absurd propaganda that Palestinians are the most oppressed people on earth; they must be - more UN business has to do with Israel and Palestinians than anything else. 

It's curious that Palestinians in Israel, the West Bank and even Gaza are a lot freer than any Palestinians living in the many refugee camps in neighbouring countries. Most of them receive little or no medical care or education, in stark contrast to the unlimited possibilities for education and medical care in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Yet, no-one seems to complain about their treatment. 

Barghouti, like all Palestinian terrorists, wants only one thing - the complete annihilation of Jews from the Holy Land. If Tutu is blind to that, what is it that hampers his view?