Tag: Richard Falk

UN expert accused of anti-Israel bias

Richard Falk

An embattled UN rights expert who probes Israel’s conduct towards Palestinians on Tuesday rejected calls to step down, saying his opponents were trying to silence his criticism of the Jewish state by labelling him anti-Semitic.

“I don’t intend to resign, and there doesn’t seem to be any formal initiative that is seeking my dismissal,” Richard Falk told reporters, a day after calling for an international investigation of Israel’s treatment of Palestinian prisoners.

Falk, an 82-year-old American who is an emeritus law professor at Princeton University, has been the UN Human Rights Council’s monitor for the Palestinian territories since 2008.

He rejected claims of anti-Semitism, saying they were “hurtful” and “completely malicious”, given that he is Jewish himself.

“It makes it appear as if criticising Israel is tantamount to what everybody agrees to be objectionable, which is anti-Semitism. I’m not willing to be intimidated in this way,” he said.

“The attack on the messenger is a way of diverting attention from the message.”

Falk has repeatedly locked horns with Israel, the United States, Canada and some human rights groups for positions including labelling Israel’s 2008 offensive against Gaza a war crime and urging a boycott of companies helping Israel’s settlement drive in the Palestinian territories.

Washington has said he should quit his UN role, which like other rights monitors at the world body he holds on an unpaid, voluntary basis.

Falk has also come under fire for alleged anti-Israel bias from UN Watch, a lobby group affiliated with the American Jewish Committee.

In April, Canada asked the rights council for Falk’s departure after UN Watch highlighted comments he had made that could be interpreted as linking the Boston marathon bombing to Washington’s support of Israel.

Falk said his remarks were “spun” by opponents, that he had condemned the Boston attack as “terrorist criminality”, and that his goal was to examine the roots of antipathy towards US policies.

“I’ve criticised the US frequently, and I don’t feel I’m anti-American,” he said.

“Why do I keep getting into trouble? It’s because of my role in trying to speak honestly about the situation that Palestinians are facing under this condition of prolonged occupation,” he added.

 

UN ‘Human Rights’ Official Attacks Israeli ‘Apartheid’ Policy

Richard Falk says the peace process is a trick, claims Israel’s treatment of PA Arabs in Judea and Samaria is apartheid.

By Elad Benari, Arutz Sheva
Judea and Samaria

The UN’s rapporteur for PA human rights launched a blistering attack on the international community on Monday.

According to an AFP report, Richard Falk accused the world of “conspiring in Israeli settlement policies”. He also branded the peace process a “trick.”

Falk also took aim at the Middle East Quartet’s peace envoy Tony Blair over his efforts in the region.

Speaking to reporters after addressing the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Falk claimed that Palestinian Authority Arabs in the PA-controlled areas of Judea and Samaria were offered no protection in Israeli law and said that their treatment was akin to apartheid.

“I think one has to begin to call the reality by a name,” Falk said, according to AFP. He likened the “discriminatory dualistic legal system” in Judea and Samaria to the former system in South Africa.

In his report to the council, Falk expressed his concern about Israel’s use of administrative detention, the expansion of Jewish communities in the region and violence by local Jewish residents.

“The peace process is a trick rather than a way to find a solution to the problem,” Falk said, adding that envoy Tony Blair “has not much to show for his 86 visits to the Middle East… (it is) an extension of the peace process which I regard as a failure because while time passes the settlement culture continues.”

He added, “The international community is conspiring — maybe unwittingly — in a process that has no way of bringing justice to the people involved in this conflict.”

Falk said that at least 3,500 buildings were under construction in Judea and Samaria in 2011, adding that such building on “Palestinian” land “more or less closes the book on the reality and feasibility” of a two-state solution to the conflict.

“The credibility of the Human Rights Council is very much at stake if there is nothing that is done about the non-cooperation or non-compliance” by Israel with the council’s recommendations, he said.

“The language of censure doesn’t help the Palestinian people if there is no action,” claimed Falk.

He also denounced violence by Jewish residents against Palestinian Authority Arabs, claiming it was “a new feature of the drive to occupy the Palestinian territories.”

“Many people say the Israeli government is an extension of the settlers and I think that is an accurate description,” he said.

Falk has a long record of attacking Israel, including comparing Israelis to Nazis and criticizing Israel for keeping Islamic Jihad terrorist Khader Adnan in custody, even after a video of him pleading for suicide bombers to “carry the next explosive belt” was exposed.

Falk responded by criticizing the Jewish State and condemning the procedure of administrative detention, a procedure that also is used by the United States. He also castigated Israel for lack of compassion for the Islamic Jihad spokesman who launched a hunger strike in order to pressure Israel to release him.

“There was not even the slightest show of respect for the dignity of Mr. Adnan’s long hunger strike or sympathy for the acute suffering that accompanies such a determined foregoing of food for an extended period,” Falk wrote.

He also claimed that “Mr. Adnan’s prior arrests stemmed from militant peaceful demonstrations that landed him in Israeli jails eight times, and induced him to undertake shorter hunger strikes on three previous occasions, one as recently as 2010. From what we can tell, Mr. Adnan is a committed activist who has associated himself with Islamic Jihad, but works on a daily basis as a baker and maintains an admired strong family role.”

Last year, the United States, joined by American Jewish groups, called on the United Nations to sack Falk after he posted an anti-Semitic cartoon on his blog.

When criticized, Falk replaced the cartoon with an apology that claimed he could not detect the anti-Semitic content of the cartoon “until it was pointed out,” although it appeared to equate Jews with animals.