The Desmond Tutu Peace Centre recently defended the archbishop's stance on Israel, saying that his criticisms were part of his overall efforts for world peace and justice.
“His stand is characteristic of a life-long activist's quest for peace and justice in the world,” the centre's chairman, advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza stated.
Archbishop Tutu recently urged a cultural boycott of Israel as a peaceful method of focussing global attention on Palestine's plight.
This resulted in the much publicised online petition, which accused Tutu of being a bigot, dishonest and a “defamer of Israel and the Jewish people”.
In 2010 Tutu requested the Cape Town Opera to cancel their performances in Israel as Palestinians would not have equal opportunity to watch them.
“That is what sparked the petition,” its author David Hersch told Agence France Presse.
“That's not the main issue, it just was the last straw,” he said.
The petitioners also demanded that Tutu resign or be fired as patron of the Cape Town holocaust centre and the Johannesburg holocaust and genocide centre.
In his statement Ntsebeza made it clear that while Tutu understood the anxieties of his detractors, “his conviction remains firm and so is the strength of his support for the South African Holocaust Centres as patron”.
“He has received support from many members of the Jewish faith who have signed petitions, written letters and issued statements of support,” Ntsebeza added.