Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has issues a challenge to the nation of Israel to remember their own scriptures when it comes to the suffering the Palestinians are presently enduring.
"They have forgotten their own history. They have forgotten what their own prophets have said about our God," the Archbishop insisted in his opening address to the International Russell Tribunal on Palestine.
"We worship a God that is naturally biased in favour of the suffering, the underdog, those who are suffering underfoot... God is always on the side of the oppressed. In the Holy Land, the Palestinian people are the ones suffering.
"There is a great deal of preventable suffering being caused by people who themselves suffered so deeply... who have gone through a crucible of suffering.
"Those of us who are Christian have been influenced very greatly by what one might call the Jewish scriptures. The biased God of the past is the biased God of the present... and if God is to be God, watch out," he warned. "This is the anguish that I bear."
The International Russell Tribunal is an international forum attempting to promote peace and justice in the Middle East. The tribunal is meeting until Monday at the District Six Museum. Panel members include Holocaust survivor Stephane Hessel, author and poet, Alice Walker, Irish Nobel peace laureate Mairead Maguire and former South African Cabinet minister Ronnie Kasrils.
Some Jewish organisations, including the SA Jewish Board of Deputies, have disregarded the tribunal as nothing but a kangaroo court, according to News24.com.