Tutu at MSU

Well, this is fun. Tutu was invited to speak; he is coming. The Anti-Defamation League sent a letter asking Simon to renounce the invitation. Flurry of communication!

I have Simon's reply and the original letter as well.

From Kenneth Waltzer, Director of Jewish Studies:

"On April 3, shortly after it was announced a few days before that Desmond Tutu was the invited commencement speaker at Michigan State University to speak this May 8, 2009, Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) sent President Simon a letter asking that the university reconsider the invitation. The letter cited Desmond Tutu's prominent role in the U.S. Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, in which he sits on the advisory board (announced March 30, 2009).
"The ADL letter reminded President Simon that she signed the petition of major university presidents in 2007 and was on record opposed to boycotting Israel and asked her to respond consistent with the principles she and MSU had upheld in that petition. That petition characterized the boycott as violating the academic values of the university and as an "intellectually shoddy and political biased attempt to highjack the central mission of higher education." Interestingly, Mr. Foxman had little problem with Desmond Tutu speaking at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota in 2007 (an earlier controversy involving Tutu), but has explained through intermediaries to this writer that Tutu is now a prominent leader in the boycott movement and that, in his view, commencement and receipt of an honorary degree from the university are different than simply speaking on campus.
"On April 6, President SImon responded to Abe Foxman and the ADL reiterating that she and MSU stand opposed to the academic and cultural boycott of Israel but stating that the university would not rescind the invitation which originated last year and is to a Nobel Prize winner and elder statesman. President Simon stated her hope Archbishop Tutu's visit would highlight his important role in the African freedom struggle and MSU's longstanding links with South Africa, particularly, and Africa generally. Instead, MSU would work to provide opportunities for the campus community to hear alternative views to those of Desmond Tutu. President SImon and Provost Wilcox have asked the Jewish Studies Program among others to assist in this task.
"ADL's response to President Simon's letter is in the press release reprinted below. The Jewish Studies Program will issue its own press release tomorrow, Wednesday, April 8, both welcoming Archbishop Tutu as commencement speaker and also declaring our total opposition to and concern about a position proposing academic and cultural boycott of Israel, which is morally simplistic in understanding the Middle East conflict and a biased effort to demonize one side.
"Earlier this semester, Jewish Studies faculty were polled concerning our consensus view on the U.S. academic and cultural boycott of Israel and I am pleased to say that we stand united in opposition. The boycott movement is an attack on academic freedom, it proposes discrimination based on nationality, it badly mischaracterizes the conflict in the Middle East, and it resonates nastily with prior anti-Jewish boycotts in the recent Jewish past. I believe we will have ample opportunity to explain our opposition in the coming weeks."

From NY Times:
"New York, NY, April 6, 2009 … Citing his long history as a strident critic of Israel and his vocal support for anti-Israel boycotts, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today said that Archbishop Desmond Tutu was a "poor choice" to deliver the commencement addresses at Michigan State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
"'Desmond Tutu is a poor choice for commencement speaker," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "His statements about Israel have time and again conveyed outright bigotry against the Jewish homeland and the Jewish people, and his deepening involvement in the anti-Israel boycott effort should have raised a red flag. This is not someone to be held up as a model or awarded an honorary degree, given his history of bombastic rhetoric and unceasing support for the anti-Israel boycott effort.
"'It is one thing to give him a platform to speak on campus; it is quite another to confer an honorary degree on an individual who actively promotes academic boycotts,' Mr. Foxman added.
"In a letter to Dr. Lou Anna K. Simon, President of Michigan State University, the League called on the university to reconsider the invitation extended to Archbishop Tutu unless he "publicly repudiates" his support for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel.
"'Archbishop Tutu has unequivocally endorsed an academic boycott based on ideas that are anti-Semitic and should be anathema to any institution of higher learning truly committed to academic freedom,' the League said it its letter to MSU. ADL sent a similar letter to Dr. Holden Thorp, Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
"The League noted that MSU's president and UNC's chancellor were among more than 200 U.S. college and university presidents who issued, in July 2007, an unequivocal statement against university-led boycotts.
"Archbishop Tutu is a participant in the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI). The campaign prominently includes Bishop Tutu as a member of its Advisory Board, whose formation was announced on March 30. The USACBI refers to Israel's "illegal occupation of Palestine and its apartheid system" and calls for the "complete academic and cultural boycott of Israeli academic institutions."