Israel, Zionism and the Media

Tag: Richard Falk

The UNHRC experts against the Palmer Report

This is a cross post by Dr Rivka Shpak Lissak

A group of So- called “independent experts’ criticized the conclusions of Palmer’s Report on the legality of the Israeli naval blockade.

Analysis

First, these So- Called “independent experts” are not independent at all. A member of the expert group, Richard Falk, a former UN official on human rights, is famous for his biased attitude towards Israel. He has a long history of anti- Israel policy.

Second, the so – called “independent experts” report deals with the blockade as a human rights issue of the Palestinian population and totally ignore the war against Israel conducted by the terrorist government of Gaza. They totally reject Israel’s right to defend its civilians against the rockets on its villages and towns.

Israel civilian population has been under constant attack of rockets from the Gaza Strip since 2006, despite of the fact that Israel destroyed all the settlements and removed all its citizens and soldiers from Gaza Strip in 2006. There was no naval blockade before 2006.

Third, the so- called “independent experts” totally ignore the statements made by the terrorist government of Gaza on its determination to eliminate the Jewish state by terror. This terrorist regime is closely connected with Iran, whose president declared of his policy to eliminate the Jewish state. Iran sends rockets, weapons and ammunition to Gaza by land and by sea. Israel has captured Iran’s consignment of arms by land and by sea. The naval blockade is the only way to prevent Iran from sending weapons and ammunition to kill Israeli civilians.

Gaza can get all it needs through its border with Egypt.
Why the so- called expert” don’t demand Egypt to open its border. They deal in their report only with Israel.
Also, Gaza gets daily shipments of food and other needs from Israel on a daily basis.

The Gaza terrorist government can put an end to the naval blockade by declaring change of its policy and by stopping targeting Israeli civilians with rockets.

According to the so- called “independent experts” Israeli civilians have no human rights. Their lives are not the concern of the experts.

In short, the real issue is not the human rights of the Palestinian population, but the human rights of the Israeli population. The terrorist government of Gaza is responsible for the Israeli naval blockade and it can bring an end to the blockade by stopping its war against Israeli civilians.

The way to deal with the Israeli- Palestinian conflict is by negotiations. The problem is the terrorist government of Gaza does not recognize the right of Israel to exist and is no interested in solving the conflict but in the elimination of Israel.

P.S: Britain bombed Dresden upon a daily base during Second World War. The people of Dresden were short of food, water, medicine and shelter.

Would the so-called “independent experts” blame Britain for the same accusations against Israel?
Germany could stop the suffering of the people of Dresden by stopping the war.

The same goes for Israel. The Hamas can stop the war against Israeli civilians and the naval blockade will be removed.

UN: Israel may not be allowed to defend itself

It’s official: long-time Israel basher, academic and UN  “special rapporteur” on Human Rights in Palestine Richard Falk is not just accusing Israel of war crimes in Gaza but, according to the BBC website, questioning “whether Israel acted lawfully in entering Gaza at all”.

So according to Falk, Israel is unique among the countries of the world in possibly not being allowed to defend itself against a barrage of rocket attacks from a neighbouring territory over a period of many years.

Just to balance things up, “He is calling for an independent inquiry to examine possible war crimes committed by both Israel and Hamas.” With one sentence he equates the actions of a terrorist organisation, whose charter reveals that it is dedicated to the physical destruction of Israel, with the country it is trying to destroy and which, perhaps, may not be allowed to defend itself against that terrorist organisation.

There is no question of “possible war crimes” when it comes to Hamas. Falk only needs to stand on the streets of Sderot for a day (but he can’t as Israel won’t give him a visa) and see what are considered harmless rockets raining down indiscriminately on a civilian population. He only needs to ask Hamas when last Gilad Shalit had a visit from the Red cross.

Here are some of Falk’s bons mots from the past:

it is not an irresponsible overstatement to associate the treatment of Palestinians with the criminalized Nazi record of collective atrocity

After writing an article in June 2007 called “Slouching toward a Palestinian Holocaust” he defended his use of the word “Holocaust” by comparing Israel’s policies to the collective punishments used by the Nazi regime in Germany.

He has also accused Israel of “genocidal tendencies”.

In 2006, Yitchal Levanon, the Israeli ambassador to the UN in Geneva said:

He has taken part in a UN fact-finding mission which determined that suicide bombings were a valid method of ‘struggle’

The BBC alludes to Falk’s previous record as a critic of Israel, who is considered biased by the Israelis, without giving the substance of that criticism.

For Falk, Israel, the arch-criminal, should sit on its hands and allow itself to be destroyed. Then, perhaps, he would be wringing his hands and describing a second Holocaust of the Jewish people and investigating Palestinian war crimes in the ruins of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.