ADL calls on UN human rights chief to condemn Richard Falk for anti-Semitic cartoon

Anti-Semitic cartoon posted by Richard Falk












U.S. representative to the Human Rights Council joins ADL in condemnation of the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Palestinian territories, saying his status as UN mandate holder is 'blight on UN system'.

The Anti-Defamation League has called on the United Nations human rights chief to publicly condemn Richard Falk, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian territories, for posting an anti-Semitic cartoon on his personal blog.

Falk posted a cartoon depicting the United States as a vicious dog wearing a skullcap, urinating on what is meant to be the statue of liberty while feasting on a pile of blood and bones.

Abraham H. Foxman, National Director of the ADL, called the cartoon "blatantly anti-Semitic", adding that it "conveys the message that Jews and Americans care little about what is just and moral."

The ADL director said that although the blog is personal "the message of hatred in this cartoon nonetheless directly contravenes the principles of the Human Rights Council and of the United Nations itself."

In a letter addressed to U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, the ADL said that Falk's decision to post the cartoon was part of a much greater trend, adding that this is "only the latest in a pattern of unacceptable and inappropriate politicization of his position."

The letter continued, saying that Falk has a history of being anti-Israel, and has compared Israeli defense measures to Nazi atrocities.

"Such biased behavior and clear intolerance is fundamentally against the values and ideals a Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council should uphold," Foxman wrote in the letter.

U.S. Representative to the Human Rights Council Eileen Donahoe said in a statement Thursday that she is "repulsed by the recent cartoon posting to the personal blog written by Richard Falk, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on “the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.”

Donahoe called the comments and postings on Falk's blog "deeply offensive", and she condemned it in "the strongest terms".

The ambassador said she was registering a strong protest to the UN on behalf of the United States, accusing Falk of having a "one-sided and politicized view of the situation in Israel and the Palestinian Territories."

Donahoe said she hoped Falk would resign and recognize that "his continued status as a UN mandate holder is a blight on the UN system".

She stressed the U.S. commitment to human rights, adding that Falk's postings and biased reporting do nothing to "further the human rights of Palestinians or Israelis, nor anything to advance peace in the region".