By Yasmine S. Hakimian
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
TEL AVIV, Israel – Richard Falk, professor at Princeton University and the United Nations Human Rights Council´s Special Repporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian Territory was deported from Israel. Falk was barred from entry into Israel when he arrived in Tel Aviv on the evening of December 14. He spent the night at Ben Gurion airport before he was deported the next morning.
Falk is currently working on a report about the human rights conditions in the occupied Palestinian Territories to raise it at the UN Human Rights Council session in March 2009. He went to Israel to examine violations of international humanitarian law in the occupied Palestinian Territories. During his trip, Falk had been scheduled to hold meetings in Ramallah with representatives of many human rights organizations.
After Falk was appointed as the UN’s special Repporteur on the Palestinian territories earlier this year, Israel stated that it would deny his entry because in 2007 he said Israel’s blockade on Gaza was a “Holocaust in the making.” Israel allowed Falk to enter in June in order to attend a conference in Ramallah in the West Bank.
Israel is defending their decision to deport Falk, saying he had used his personal visit in June to write an official UN report and because of his comparison of Israel’s practices to the Holocaust.
Yigal Palmor, the Israeli Foreign Minister, stated that “Falk came as a reporter for the UN Human Rights Council and we find the mandate of the reporter is completely distorted. It has been instrumentalized for Israel-bashing.”
Palmor claims Falk has made unprofessional extreme comments about Israel, with no factual basis. Palmor did not cite any examples but stated that the fact that Falk believes in conspiracy theories is enough reason to discredit him.
The Adalah rights organization has sent an urgent letter to Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit and Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, demanding that they lift the ban on Falk. The organization has noted that the ban is a severe blow to the rights of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. The letter states that it is Israel’s obligation, as a member of the UN and a signatory to various international human rights conventions, to respect the work of UN representatives and enable human rights missions without fear of repercussions.
It is the third time this year that Israel has barred a high-profile critic from entering. In May, Israel deported Norman Finkelstein, a controversial Jewish American academic who has accused Israel of using the Holocaust to justify its actions against the Palestinians. In the same month, Israel also refused Archbishop Desmond Tutu entry while he was on a UN fact-finding mission in Gaza.
For more information, please see:
New York Times – U.N. Rights Investigator Expelled By Israel – 16 December 2008
American Chronicle – U.S. Professor Richard Falk Denied Entry Into Israel And Deported From Ben Gurion Airport – 15 December 2008
Electronic Intifada – Israel Denies Entry to UN Rights Reporter – 15 December 2008
Ha’aertz – Israel Expels UN Rights Envoy Who Compared Israelis to Nazis – 15 December 2008
