alternet.org— An interview with Richard Falk, professor emeritus of international law at Princeton and the UN's recently appointed 'special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories'.
Jul 12, 2008View in Crawl 4
This is a fairly long piece so here are some interesting highlights.On Israeli violations of international humanitarian laws."The Human Rights Council is often accused of being overly selective, too critical of Israel, too lenient with respect to a variety of Third World countries. There is no doubt that any political institution will establish priorities based on the concerns of its membership. From this perspective it's not surprising that a focus should be placed on Israel and the Palestinian plight. After all, the UN has a special responsibility for Palestine that goes back to its effort to partition the mandate for the territory in 1947. From the UN perspective this unconsummated effort to address the future of both Palestinians and Israelis is, in a sense, the greatest unresolved issue on the UN agenda. Beyond this, the prolonged Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is unprecedented in international experience and has produced immense Palestinian suffering. It should also be noted that the HRC has appointed special rapporteurs for other situations of severe human rights concern, including North Korea and Myanmar.It would be unforgivable if the Human Rights Council overlooked charges of Israeli violation of international humanitarian law. Limitations of resources, geopolitical pressures and blind spots help explain why some other situations involving serious human rights abuse are not addressed with comparable seriousness. But my experience suggests that the HRC entrusts its special rapporteurs with complete freedom to report on a given situation and demands that they adhere to professional canons of impartiality in the discharge of their official duties.Israel has been long relying on various forms of collective punishment to carry out its occupation policy. Collective punishment is not just a response to the Hamas victory in the elections of 2006. It's an extension of that. And it definitely seems in the Gaza case to have the intention of creating a set of political effects that, at minimum, destroy Hamas as a political movement and possibly, more ambitiously, induce Palestinians to give up their struggle by provoking feelings of abject humiliation and helplessness."
Richard Falk's response to charges that the UN Human Rights Council has been engaged in "one-sided Israel-bashing":"It is being objective to report the facts as they are and then to interpret them from the perspective of international humanitarian law. If these facts point to the persistent violation of international rules, then their legal interpretation is bound to be one-sided and critical of the violator. It's diversionary to dismiss a critical account of contested behavior because it is not "balanced." If the reality is unbalanced, so must its assessment be."The above statement by Falk is so logical as to be obvious. It just goes to show that TRUTH is thrown out the window when it comes to Israel's treatment of the Palestinians - especially here in the US.
Tell that to the hundreds of millions of people who were immunised against fatal diseases by UN organisations. But since they didn't do anything for you personally, they must be worthless, right?
Israel is for some reason (to idiots that is) not considered part of the Middle East. What's really sickening is that any criticism of Israel or it's foreign or military policies is touted as anti-Semitism by Pro-Israel Lobby groups. Any comment that discusses humanitarian issues is mitigated as a rationalization to kill all Jews. By doing this, these so-called pro Israel groups are diluting the real cases of racism against Jews. It's sickening that there are people who so vehemently oppose the atrocities of the Holocaust yet scoff at anyone comparing or showing the similarities with the Palestinian land that Israel currently occupies. Call it what you want, but it's basically apartheid.
carthagefieldJul 12, 2008Submitter
This is a fairly long piece so here are some interesting highlights.On Israeli violations of international humanitarian laws."The Human Rights Council is often accused of being overly selective, too critical of Israel, too lenient with respect to a variety of Third World countries. There is no doubt that any political institution will establish priorities based on the concerns of its membership. From this perspective it's not surprising that a focus should be placed on Israel and the Palestinian plight. After all, the UN has a special responsibility for Palestine that goes back to its effort to partition the mandate for the territory in 1947. From the UN perspective this unconsummated effort to address the future of both Palestinians and Israelis is, in a sense, the greatest unresolved issue on the UN agenda. Beyond this, the prolonged Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is unprecedented in international experience and has produced immense Palestinian suffering. It should also be noted that the HRC has appointed special rapporteurs for other situations of severe human rights concern, including North Korea and Myanmar.It would be unforgivable if the Human Rights Council overlooked charges of Israeli violation of international humanitarian law. Limitations of resources, geopolitical pressures and blind spots help explain why some other situations involving serious human rights abuse are not addressed with comparable seriousness. But my experience suggests that the HRC entrusts its special rapporteurs with complete freedom to report on a given situation and demands that they adhere to professional canons of impartiality in the discharge of their official duties.Israel has been long relying on various forms of collective punishment to carry out its occupation policy. Collective punishment is not just a response to the Hamas victory in the elections of 2006. It's an extension of that. And it definitely seems in the Gaza case to have the intention of creating a set of political effects that, at minimum, destroy Hamas as a political movement and possibly, more ambitiously, induce Palestinians to give up their struggle by provoking feelings of abject humiliation and helplessness."
Closed AccountJul 12, 2008
Richard Falk's response to charges that the UN Human Rights Council has been engaged in "one-sided Israel-bashing":"It is being objective to report the facts as they are and then to interpret them from the perspective of international humanitarian law. If these facts point to the persistent violation of international rules, then their legal interpretation is bound to be one-sided and critical of the violator. It's diversionary to dismiss a critical account of contested behavior because it is not "balanced." If the reality is unbalanced, so must its assessment be."The above statement by Falk is so logical as to be obvious. It just goes to show that TRUTH is thrown out the window when it comes to Israel's treatment of the Palestinians - especially here in the US.
sk11Jul 13, 2008
Tell that to the hundreds of millions of people who were immunised against fatal diseases by UN organisations. But since they didn't do anything for you personally, they must be worthless, right?
cassetteturnJul 13, 2008
REALLY EXCELLENT interview --I'm going to send this to all my UNWatch buddies (UN Watch is affiliated with the American Jewish Committee --of course)
geokenJul 14, 2008
Newsflash;Nobody gives a f**k about what you're going to do.
str3amaJul 14, 2008
Israel is for some reason (to idiots that is) not considered part of the Middle East. What's really sickening is that any criticism of Israel or it's foreign or military policies is touted as anti-Semitism by Pro-Israel Lobby groups. Any comment that discusses humanitarian issues is mitigated as a rationalization to kill all Jews. By doing this, these so-called pro Israel groups are diluting the real cases of racism against Jews. It's sickening that there are people who so vehemently oppose the atrocities of the Holocaust yet scoff at anyone comparing or showing the similarities with the Palestinian land that Israel currently occupies. Call it what you want, but it's basically apartheid.
Closed AccountJul 14, 2008
They must be tired of killing them. <a class="user" href="http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Security/2088.htm">http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Security/208 ...</a>A video of her when she was still alive:<a class="user" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3JI-axaRF4">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3JI-axaRF4</a>