TUTU STATUE FOR PALESTINE

In another show of support for Palestinians, a life-size statue of Archbishop Desmond Tutu draped in a special Palestinian-African scarf has been unveiled in Cape Town.

It’s been placed on the balcony of his foundation’s headquarters at the Old Granary Building. And it will stay there until a ceasefire is declared in Israel’s three-month war on Gaza that’s killed over 23,000 Palestinians.

Tutu was an outspoken critic of Israel’s policies which he likened to apartheid in South Africa, marked by the humiliation of checkpoints, confiscation of land for settlements, house demolitions and the confinement of Palestinians to blobs of territory. He visited the region several times, including as an emissary of the United Nations, and called for nonviolent resistance to Israeli occupation through boycotts and sanctions. He believed, just like in apartheid South Africa, international isolation would play a major role in forcing change.

Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Mandla, was at the statue's unveiling and explained the scarf's pan-African colours of yellow, green and red had been made intentionally for Africa at a Gazan factory.