South Africa’s Desmond Tutu has dedicated his life to fighting oppression, including in the Middle East.
Currently in Isreal and Palestine with The Elders in an attempt to find a path to peace, he tells Haaretz that he has strong views on Israeli academic Neve Gordon’s call for a boycott against Israel:
“I always say to people that sanctions were important in the South African case for several reasons. We had a sports boycott, and since we are a sports-mad country, it hit ordinary people. It was one of the most psychologically powerful instruments.
“Secondly, it actually did hit the pocket of the South African government. I mean, when we had the arms embargo and the economic boycott.”
He said that when F.W. de Klerk became president he telephoned congratulations. “The very first thing he said to me was ‘well now will you call off sanctions?’ Although they kept saying, oh well, these things don’t affect us at all. That was not true.
“And another important reason was that it gave hope to our people that the world cared. You know. That this was a form of identification.”