In advance of his appearance today before the General Assembly, Richard Falk, the U.N. Human Rights Council’s permanent investigator of “Israel’s violations of the bases and principles of international law,” has just released a new report calling on civil society to “vigorously pursue initiatives to boycott, divest and sanction” HP, Motorola, Volvo, Caterpillar, and other businesses having commercial connections with Israeli activities in the West Bank.
Falk was just condemned by the British government for his “anti-Semitic” remarks, with the Foreign Office delivering a protest to the U.N. that expressed London’s “serious concerns” over his “unacceptable” comments. UN Watch urged the U.S., France, Germany and other democracies to follow suit by taking the floor today to condemn Falk’s anti-Jewish remarks.
Five Facts on Falk:
1. Last week, Falk justified his 1979 New York Times op-ed titled “Trusting Khomeini.”
Days after Ayatollah Khomeini seized power in 1979, Falk reassured the world that “the depiction of him as fanatical, reactionary and the bearer of crude prejudices seems certainly and happily false.”
Khomeini’s entourage, wrote Falk, had “a notable record of concern for human rights.” Indeed, the ayatollah’s “new model of popular revolution” offered the world “a desperately-needed model of humane governance for a third-world country.”
In response, the Times’ own Anthony Lewis wrote a column entitled “Trusting Illusions.” Falk’s assurances, said Lewis, were “outstandingly silly.” His analysis was “distorted,” he added. “No one should have expected Iran under Ayatollah Khomeini to to be comfortable liberal — or stable.”
2. Falk is one of the figures responsible for turning the UN Human Rights Council—whose precursor was founded by Eleanor Roosevelt—into a travesty.
In 2008, after Falk claimed Israel was planning a “Palestinian Holocaust,” Bashar al-Assad’s Syria, Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya and other dictatorships installed him as the council’s monitor on Palestine.
His mission is so biased that Falk tries to obscure it. He calls himself, as does the Stanford ad, the Special Rapporteur on “the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories,” implying a regional jurisdiction examining all sides. Yet his actual mandate is to investigate “Israel’s violations.” Not Hamas, not Fatah, not Islamic Jihad—only Israel.
3. Falk uses his UN post to legitimize Hamas, ignoring its brutalization of fellow Palestinians, rocketing of Israeli civilians and incitement to genocidal murder of Jews.
Falk’s reports whitewash Hamas as the “elected government” of Gaza—never mind that it seized power by throwing opponents off rooftops.
His backing of the terrorist group is so extreme that even the Palestinian Authority urged his removal, viewing him as a “partisan of Hamas.”
4. Falk last year published a cartoon showing a dog, with “U.S.A.” written on its body and wearing a Jewish headcover, devouring a bloody skeleton and urinating on a female figure symbolizing justice.
UN rights chief Navi Pillay found the posting “anti-Semitic” and “objectionable.” Falk was condemned by British Prime Minister David Cameron and many others.
Eventually, after initially insisting he did nothing doing wrong, Falk reluctantly apologized — to Jews, and animals. No joke: see here.
5. Falk is one of the world’s top 9/11 conspiracy theorists, endorsing those who accuse the U.S. government of orchestrating the destruction of the Twin Towers as a pretext to launch wars.
Falk promotes the writings of David Ray Griffin, his disciple and close friend who produced 12 books describing the World Trade Center attack as “an inside job.”
Not only did Falk contribute the Foreword to Griffin’s 2004 “The New Pearl Harbor”—praising the author’s “fortitude,” “courage,” and “intelligence”—but Griffin credits Falk for getting the book published.
Falk has repeatedly appeared on the “TruthJihad.com” show of Kevin Barrett, a 9/11 conspiracy theorist and Holocaust skeptic, endorsing Barrett’s “good work,” and praising Iranian tyrant Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
In an unprecedented reprimand, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon took the floor of the Human Rights Council to decry Falk’s 9/11 theories as “preposterous” and “an affront to the memory of the more than 3,000 people who died in that tragic terrorist attack.”
Likewise, U.S. ambassador Susan Rice has called Falk’s 9/11 remarks “despicable.” His “distasteful sideshow,” she said, harms the cause of human rights.
Falk’s sideshow also harms the cause of the U.N.
