The Anti-Defamation League is urging the president of a Minnesota university to invite Archbishop Desmond Tutu to speak. Tutu had been disinvited because of fears he might offend Jews. He had been slated to visit the University of St. Thomas next spring as part of a program that brings Nobel laureates to teach youth about peace and justice. But university administrators, after consulting with Minnesota Jewish leaders, concluded that Tutu had made hurtful comments about Israel and the Jewish people and would be an inappropriate speaker. “Tutu has certainly been an outspoken, sometimes very harsh critic of Israel and Israeli policies, and has sometimes also used examples which may cross the line,” said Abraham Foxman, the ADL’s national director. “He certainly is not an anti-Semite and should not be so characterized and therefore refused a platform.” The ADL is preparing a letter to the university’s president, Father Dennis Dease, urging him to reconsider the decision.
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