After first denying that he published an anti-Semitic cartoon on his blog, the United Nation's Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Palestinian territories has admitted he did do so, and has published a mocking apology. The cartoon depicted a Jewish dog (with yarmulke and Star of David) eating a bloody human body. Responding to criticism of the cartoon, Richard Falk states that we should treat animals with respect, making a joke of his apology. Watchog organization UN Watch has called for his removal from a sensitive and influential UN position, but that is highly unlikely to happen.
Falk, an outspoken opponent of Israel, has made countless incendiary statements over the years, with accusations often bordering on (or crossing) the line into anti-Semitic propaganda. His appointment to a prestigious role by the United Nations has granted him an international pulpit for his accusations and has given them credence in the eyes of many who, unaware of the exact facts, rely on the United Nations mantle as a guarantee of unbiased accuracy.
Falk accuses Israel of heinous war crimes and crimes against humanity, such as his claim that the Israeli military arbitrarily shoots Palestinian children (http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/F50209337ED4177685257885005353D5). In a 2007 article, he equated Israel with the Nazis and its actions as equivalent to the Holocaust or the Rwanda genocide, a paper that no doubt helped his selection by the UN in the following year.
Falk was appointed for a six-year term to the dubious role of United Nation's "Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Palestinian territories" in 2008 by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). The members of the council at that time included Angola, Azerbaijan, China, Cuba, Egypt, Pakistan, Russia and Saudi Arabia. His role was defined in a way that excluded any monitoring of Palestinian actions or of context, focusing only on supposed Israeli wrongdoing. In the years since, Falk has made countless incendiary statements accusing Israel of War Crimes and crimes against humanity, and singling t out for condemnation and punishment.
Falk had previously given rise to calls for his removal when he used his pulpit to espouse '9-11 is an inside job' conspiracy theories, but the United Nations did not remove him then. His past is a decades-long record of anti-Israel and anti-US activism, and blind support for such murderous dictators as Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini.
Update
Falk has issued a second clarification, "A final attempt to clarify my posting of the cartoon", in which he blames the whole thing on Google!
Explaining that he found the cartoon through Google image search, he essentially says it is Google's responsibility to remove offensive content from its search results, and by implication that it is OK for him to take and republish any images he finds on the internet without looking too closely or seeking permission from the copyright owner (a strange position for a retired international law professor).
