UN to decide on Falk's appeal
Photo: Reuters
Falk asks to investigate Palestinian rights abuses
UN rights expert criticized for equating Israelis to Nazis requests mandate to investigate Palestinian violations of international law as well as Israel's, but asks to exclude Palestinian internal violence from his analysis
Richard Falk, a Jewish professor emeritus at Princeton University and UN expert charged with investigating Israeli rights abuses against Palestinians said his role is biased and should be widened to include violations carried out by Palestinians as well.
Falk asked the UN Human Rights Council on Monday to address persistent criticism of his post by changing the job description. "I think the idea of investigating violations of international humanitarian law only make sense if all the relevant parties are included," Falk remarked after the meeting. Attention has been diverted from Israel's human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories by those who argue his role is one-sided and biased, he said.
"One exposes the real character of the occupation much more effectively if one responds to that criticism, which I think is in any event a fair criticism," Falk said. Widening the mandate given to him by the 47-nation Human Rights Council would make his job both more effective and fairer, he added.
Falk, like his predecessor John Dugard, has faced scrutiny for his comments about the Israeli occupation. Dugard, a South African law professor, compared Israeli treatment of Palestinians to apartheid, the discriminatory policy of the former white regime in South Africa toward blacks. Israel reacted angrily earlier this year to comments by Falk that equated Israel's treatment of Palestinians with Nazi atrocities against Jews during the Holocaust.
Falk said he would be disappointed if the Geneva-based council does not expand his job when it reviews the role for the first time in September.
He said, however, he would not want to investigate abuses by Palestinians against their own people. "I think the (UN's) special attention to the occupation has to include resistance to the occupation," he said. "That is why I favor expanding the mandate, but not expanding it to include what Palestinians do to each other"
Diplomats said it was likely that the Council would agree to the request from Falk, who pledged to take "an objective and impartial approach" to his work.
During its two-year lifetime the council has condemned Israel some 20 times, more than any other country, for its abuses in the Palestinian territories and in Lebanon.
The United States announced earlier this month that it was suspending participation in the Council, where it was an observer. European and some Latin American countries have also voiced concern at the direction the body is taking. However the council's resolutions are symbolic and carry no legal weight.
