Posted on December 10, 2012
“The human rights expert has just concluded a week-long mission to the region, with the initial purpose assessing the overall impact of Israel’s prolonged occupation and blockade against the Gaza Strip, which is an integral part of Palestine. However, there arose an urgent need to investigate Israel’s seemingly deliberate attacks against civilian targets during recent hostilities,” said Dr. Falk.
The Special Rapporteur called for sustained pressure from the international community, including both Governments and civil society, to secure Israel’s full implementation of the cease fire agreement, noting that without such pressure it is extremely unlikely to hold. “Worldwide support for the recent General Assembly resolution that made Palestine a non-Member observer State should serve as a starting point for more concerted international protection of Palestinian rights,” he said. Read the statement in full, here.
Dr. Falk who is still in the region, is expected to submit his official report to UNHRC in June 2013.
On December 3, Geneva-based Israel-Jewish lobby group, UN Watch, complained that the international body hates Israel as during its meeting last month it passed 21 anti-Israel resolutions as compared to only 4 against the rest of the UN members. The so-called “anti-Israel” resolutions included; Israel’s exploitation of natural resorces in Gaza, West Bank, East Jerusalem and Golan Heights – and all Jewish settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Golan Heights being illegal.
On November 19, 2012, in an interview with Amy Goodman (Jewish) of Democracy Now!, Dr. Falk said: “It’s incredibly frustrating to represent the United Nations and to realize that it’s incapable of acting in a situation of such extremity from the point of view of the exitential horror that people of Gaza are being subjected to by this unlawful and criminal style of (8-day Israeli) attack“.
Lawrence Davidson Ph.D, an American academic, writer and author wrote in the defense of Richard Falk on December 3, as follows:
“Professor Falk’s experience should serve as a warning to both those who would, on the one hand, make a career out of being a spokesperson for governments or companies, and on the other, those who would dedicate themselves to “speaking truth to power.” Taking on the role of the former is the equivalent of selling your soul to leadership whose sense of right and wrong goes no further than their own local interests. Taking on the role of the latter is to face seemingly endless frustration for, as Noam Chomsky once noted, power already knows the truth and doesn’t care one jot for it.
Yet, for those who would travel down this latter road, Richard Falk is as good a role model as can be found. Having dedicated himself to the role of truth teller he is to be commended for his devotion to justice and sheer durability. He is a hero who, hopefully, will have his praises sung long after Ms Karaen Peretz (Israeli UN envoy) and Ms Susan Rice (American UN envoy) are deservedly forgotten.
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