Monday morning, a student member of the Ohio State University Hillel Center made racist references to Desmond Tutu, a leader and veteran of the South African struggle against apartheid, as a “neo Nazi.” The individual made the post in an argument about Israeli apartheid on the Facebook event page of the Annual Israel Festival, which the group describes as a week meant “to celebrate Israel with free food, music, games, giveaways, and more!” The comment was in response to a video of Tutu describing the Israeli oppression of Palestinians as apartheid. A screen-cap of the exchange is below:

When I asked organizers from the Hillel Center to rebuke the ignorant comment, OSU Hillel organizers instead deleted all traces of the comment.

Although I recognize the ideological and political differences between OSU Hillel and myself, I do not believe that an organization that claims to support diversity and equality will stand by such a statement when it is made public. I sincerely hope that publishing this story will encourage OSU Hillel to speak out against the racism expressed by one of its student members.