ARCHBISHOP Emeritus Desmond Tutu has received more support for his call for a cultural boycott of Israel

Three months ago, the 79-year-old anti-apartheid icon drew fire from pro-Israel supporters when he asked the Cape Town Opera to call off its tour of Israel.

The opera refused, and last month Sowetan reported that a small group of Jewish South Africans had launched a petition accusing Tutu of "bigotry" and anti-semitism.

They demanded that the Cape Town and Johannesburg holocaust centres axe Tutu as their patron. But then another group of prominent human rights activists and lawyers came out in support of Tutu.

Even South Africa's chief rabbi, Warren Goldstein, said it would be "an act of disrespect" to remove Tutu as patron of the centres.

They were backed yesterday by Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza, a former Truth and Reconciliation Commissioner.

Speaking as chairperson of the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre, Ntsebeza said Tutu's call for a cultural boycott of Israel was a peaceful way to focus world attention on the plight of Palestinians, who live under Israeli military occupation.

"There are many members of the Jewish faith who find some of the activities of the state of Israel in regards to the Palestine as worthy of moral outrage as Archbishop Tutu finds them," Ntsebeza said.