ADL cites investigator's refusal to apologize for remarks comparing Gaza to holocaust in the making.
By JPOST.COM STAFFcheckpoint Falk 224.88(photo credit: AP)
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Thursday urged the UN Human Rights Council to reject the reports compiled by the UN special investigator on Israeli actions in the Palestinian territories.
The ADL called the appointment of Richard Falk "singularly inappropriate," saying it would be impossible for him to serve as an "unbiased observer."
"Mr. Falk has a long record of harsh and frequently incendiary criticism of Israel, and he has refused to apologize for his remarks comparing Gaza to a holocaust in the making," said ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman. "This was clearly a singularly inappropriate choice for this position. Falk¹s startling record of anti-Israel prejudice should have been enough to preclude him from a position where an unbiased observer is needed to report on the status of human rights in the territories."
In a letter to UNHRC President Doru Costea, the ADL called urged him to "take appropriate measures to ensure that Mr. Falk¹s views are not considered by the Council."
"Clearly, Mr. Falk is incapable of approaching the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with an unbiased and reasoned eye," said the letter.
In response to a recent BBC interview in which Falk defended his view of Israeli treatment of Palestinians in Gaza as a "holocaust," Israel this week indicated that it would deny Falk a visa to enter Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.
On March 26, Yitzhak Levanon, ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, spoke against Falk's appointment in an address to the UNHRC.
'In a recent article, [Falk] stated that he did not think it to be 'an irresponsible overstatement to associate the treatment of Palestinians with the criminalized Nazi record of collective atrocity,' Levanon said.
