On July 7, 2011, U.S. UN Ambassador to Geneva, Eileen Donahoe, issued a statement condemning Richard Falk for an anti-Semitic cartoon posted on his personal blog.
Falk is the UN “human rights expert” who thinks Boston had it coming. He’s also the same professor who labeled Boston’s victims “canaries” because resistance to “the American global domination project” is justified, and who has been spouting anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism from his UN perch for years.
“Mr. Falk’s continued comments and postings to his personal blog are deeply offensive, and I condemn them in the strongest terms. I am registering a strong protest with the UN on behalf of the United States,” Donahoe wrote in 2011. “The United States has often been critical of Mr. Falk’s approach to his mandate, including his one-sided and politicized view of situation in Israel and the Palestinian Territories.”
“We hope that he will resign, recognizing that his continued status as a UN mandate holder is a blight on the UN system,” she declared.
What happened next?
Richard Falk continued in his role as a UN “expert.” He produced a report for the UN Human Rights Council in May 2012 and presented it in June 2012. He wrote another report for the General Assembly in September 2012 and presented it in October 2012. And the Obama administration paid 22% of all his costs.
Then, on October 25, 2012, US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice issued a press statement also condemning Falk in response to his call for the boycotting of companies for dealing with Israel in his October report to the UN General Assembly:
Throughout his tenure as Special Rapporteur, Mr. Falk has been highly biased and made offensive statements, including outrageous comments on the 9/11 attacks. Mr. Falk’s… continued service in the role of a UN Special Rapporteur is deeply regrettable and only damages the credibility of the UN.
Then what happened? Richard Falk stayed on as UN Special Rapporteur, and the Obama administration paid 22% of his bills.
Most recently, on April 23, 2013, Susan Rice tweeted, “Outraged by Richard Falk’s highly offensive Boston comments. Someone who spews such vitriol has no place at the UN. Past time for him to go.”
The United States UN Mission also issued a statement on Falk’s reprehensible comments about the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing:
The United States completely rejects the provocative and offensive commentary by Mr. Richard Falk… regarding the recent terrorist attack in Boston, Massachusetts. The United States has previously called for Mr. Falk’s resignation for his numerous outrageous statements, and these comments underscore once more the absurdity of his service as a UN Special Rapporteur.
Do you see a pattern here?
For some context, the UN Human Rights Council “expert” on Israel prior to Falk, John Dugard, said “a distinction must be drawn between acts of mindless terror… and act committed in the course of a war of national liberation.” Palestinian violence, he said, is the second kind, analogous to “the German occupation resisted by European countries in the Second World War.” That is, Israelis are like Nazis and also have it coming.
Rest assured, when Falk one day steps down from his UN global platform – no thanks to the Obama administration – there will be another Falk just around the corner. That’s how the UN “human rights” system works. The question is, how should the United States respond?
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.