Desmond Tutu statue with Palestinian scarf goes up in Cape Town

Johannesburg, South Africa – AFP

A statue of South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu wearing a Palestinian scarf was put up in Cape Town on Friday to symbolise his decades-long work championing justice for Palestinians.

The late Nobel peace laureate’s “life-size statue” will be on show “until the bombing of Gaza stops”, the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation said Thursday.

“He was an outspoken critic of the State of Israel’s policies and treatment of Palestine and Palestinians, which he likened to the policies and actions of apartheid South Africa,” the Foundation said.

South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) has long been a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause.

The country has cut off diplomatic ties with Israel over its response to the deadly October 7 Hamas attacks.

Tutu’s statue will be on display on the balcony of his foundation’s headquarters.

The 200-year-old site in central Cape Town, known as Old Granary Building, was rescued by Tutu after falling in disrepair, having previously housed a court and post office.

Tutu visited both Israel and Gaza “on a number of occasions, including as an emissary of the United Nations”, his foundation said in a joint statement with the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Intellectual Property Trust.

The peace icon “fervently believed that the greatest beneficiaries of a just dispensation for Palestine, besides Palestinians, themselves, would be the citizens of Israel,” they added.

Israel has killed at least 23,469 people, most of them women and children, in Gaza since October 7, according to health ministry in the enclave.