UN Human Rights Investigator Richard Falk Detained, Expelled from Israel

Richard Falk was appointed the special Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories earlier this year but was denied entry because of what Israel called his “highly politicized views.”

Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesman Yigal Palmor said Falk “does not try to advance human rights, but instead comes with his conclusions ready and those conclusions are of course extreme methodic criticism of Israel and only of Israel.” Israel"s Foreign Ministry also accused Falk of “legitimizing Hamas terrorism and drawing shameful comparisons to the Holocaust.”

The emeritus professor of international law at Princeton University issued a statement last week titled “Gaza: Silence is not an option” that condemned Israel"s blockade of Gaza as a “flagrant and massive violation of international humanitarian law.” He urged the UN to invoke “the agreed norm of a responsibility to protect a civilian population being collectively punished by policies that amount to a Crime Against Humanity." He also called for an International Criminal Court investigation of Israeli military and civilian officials for potential prosecution.

Richard Falk is now back at home in California and joins me now on the telephone.

Richard Falk, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian Territories. He is professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University and the author of more than fifty books on war, human rights and international law, including Achieving Human Rights; Crimes of War: Iraq, with Irene Gendzier; and Israel-Palestine on Record: How the New York Times Misreports Conflict in the Middle East, with Howard Friel.