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Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Politics / Foreign Affairs / My Expulsion From Israel - By Richard Falk (1005 Views)
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My Expulsion From Israel - By Richard Falk by Afam(m): 9:05pm On Jan 01, 2009 |
From my inbox, enjoy +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++= My Expulsion From Israel By Richard Falk On December 14, I arrived at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, Israel to carry out my UN role as special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories. I was leading a mission that had intended to visit the West Bank and Gaza to prepare a report on Israel's compliance with human rights standards and international humanitarian law. Meetings had been scheduled on an hourly basis during the six days, starting with Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, the following day. I knew that there might be problems at the airport. Israel had strongly opposed my appointment a few months earlier and its foreign ministry had issued a statement that it would bar my entry if I came to Israel in my capacity as a UN representative. At the same time, I would not have made the long journey from California, where I live, had I not been reasonably optimistic about my chances of getting in. Israel was informed that I would lead the mission and given a copy of my itinerary, and issued visas to the two people assisting me: a staff security person and an assistant, both of whom work at the office of the high commissioner of human rights in Geneva. To avoid an incident at the airport, Israel could have either refused to grant visas or communicated to the UN that I would not be allowed to enter, but neither step was taken. It seemed that Israel wanted to teach me, and more significantly, the UN a lesson: there will be no cooperation with those who make strong criticisms of Israel's occupation policy. After being denied entry, I was put in a holding room with about 20 others experiencing entry problems. At this point, I was treated not as a UN representative, but as some sort of security threat, subjected to an inch-by-inch body search and the most meticulous luggage inspection I have ever witnessed. I was separated from my two UN companions who were allowed to enter Israel and taken to the airport detention facility a mile or so away. I was required to put all my bags and cell phone in a room and taken to a locked tiny room that smelled of urine and filth. It contained five other detainees and was an unwelcome invitation to claustro- phobia. I spent the next 15 hours so confined, which amounted to a cram course on the miseries of prison life, including dirty sheets, inedible food and lights that were too bright or darkness controlled from the guard office. Of course, my disappointment and harsh confinement were trivial matters, not by themselves worthy of notice, given the sorts of serious hardships that millions around the world daily endure. Their importance is largely symbolic. I am an individual who had done nothing wrong beyond express strong disapproval of policies of a sovereign state. More importantly, the obvious intention was to humble me as a UN representative and thereby send a message of defiance to the United Nations. Israel had all along accused me of bias and of making inflammatory charges relating to the occupation of Palestinian territories. I deny that I am biased, but rather insist that I have tried to be truthful in assessing the facts and relevant law. It is the character of the occupation that gives rise to sharp criticism of Israel's approach, especially its harsh blockade of Gaza, resulting in the collective punishment of the 1.5 million inhabitants. By attacking the observer rather than what is observed, Israel plays a clever mind game. It directs attention away from the realities of the occupation, practising effectively a politics of distraction. The blockade of Gaza serves no legitimate Israeli function. It is supposedly imposed in retaliation for some Hamas and Islamic Jihad rockets that have been fired across the border at the Israeli town of Sderot. The wrongfulness of firing such rockets is unquestionable, yet this in no way justifies indiscriminate Israeli retaliation against the entire civilian population of Gaza. The purpose of my reports is to document on behalf of the UN the urgency of the situation in Gaza and elsewhere in occupied Palestine. Such work is particularly important now as there are signs of a renewed escalation of violence and even of a threatened Israeli reoccupation. Before such a catastrophe happens, it is important to make the situation as transparent as possible, and that is what I had hoped to do in carrying out my mission. Although denied entry, my effort will continue to use all available means to document the realities of the Israeli occupation as truthfully as possible. ----------------------------------------------------------- Richard Falk is professor of international law at Princeton University and the UN's special reporter on the Palestinian territories. Richard Falk is also Jewish. ------------------------------------------------------------ +++++++++++++++====== |
Re: My Expulsion From Israel - By Richard Falk by Tornadoz(m): 9:24pm On Jan 01, 2009 |
Richard Falk is professor of international law at Princeton Good Jew |
Re: My Expulsion From Israel - By Richard Falk by landis(m): 9:25am On Jan 02, 2009 |
To avoid an incident at the airport, Israel could have yeah. The Good Isreal has done it again. Let Sudan or Mali try that to any UN envoy and you have saints US/UK talking bla bla I was separated from my two UN companions who were allowed this look so similar to what Mr H would do. |
Re: My Expulsion From Israel - By Richard Falk by RichyBlacK(m): 12:23pm On Jan 02, 2009 |
On December 27, 2008 Falk issued a statement condemning the December 2008 Israel strikes on Gaza as "war crimes" because they included collective punishment, targeting of civilians and a disproportionate military response to Hamas rocket attacks on Israel. He also stated that Israel had ignored Hamas' diplomatic initiatives to re-establish the ceasefire which expired December 26 and condemned nations which provided Israel military support and participated in the siege of Gaza.[26] --Wikipedia |
Re: My Expulsion From Israel - By Richard Falk by RichyBlacK(m): 12:27pm On Jan 02, 2009 |
Tornadoz: If the Apartheid Zionist State of Israel had been a non-Jewish State, they would have been relegated to the levels of North Korea in terms of policy. The only thing going for Israel is the guilt-sympathy from myopic Westerners, particularly, the Religious Right in America. |
Re: My Expulsion From Israel - By Richard Falk by otokx(m): 2:49pm On Jan 02, 2009 |
did ISRAEL also blockade the underground tunnels between EGYPT and GAZA that are being used to smuggle IRANIAN nukes? Why don't HAMAS use those same route to get in the "much needed medical and humanitarian" supplies? |
Re: My Expulsion From Israel - By Richard Falk by Tornadoz(m): 11:23pm On Jan 02, 2009 |
RichyBlacK: Because of the overwhelming power of the religious right,aipac etc, the Jews run America. I've watched CNN in utter disbelief as powerful political figures speak teary eyed when middle eastern fascism was the topic. They lose all sense of reasoning often times speaking with trepidation. Israel has the American political elite by their balls no doubt. |
Re: My Expulsion From Israel - By Richard Falk by RichyBlacK(m): 11:47pm On Jan 02, 2009 |
Tornadoz: I hope Obama does not succumb to the blood-thirsty policies of the AIPAC! He must distance himself from racist/hate groups like the AIPAC! |
Re: My Expulsion From Israel - By Richard Falk by Nobody: 11:51pm On Jan 02, 2009 |
RichyBlacK: have you watched arab tv before? you havent seen the definition of "hate groups" before. AIPAC are school kids compared to them. |
Re: My Expulsion From Israel - By Richard Falk by RichyBlacK(m): 11:54pm On Jan 02, 2009 |
otokx: 1. There is nothing like "Iranian nukes". Iran does not have any nuclear weapons! Stop regurgitating IDF/Republican/Bush-Cheney propaganda! 2. Yes, Israel sent in special forces before this current massacre of Palestinians, to destroy those tunnels. I doubt they destroyed all though.
1. The tunnels were built to relieve the people of Gaza from the humanitarian crisis caused by the blockade of Gaza by the IDF. 2. Israel has always allowed the entry of food and medical supplies but in very small quantities, which has led to rationing inside Gaza. |
Re: My Expulsion From Israel - By Richard Falk by Lagosboy: 12:01am On Jan 03, 2009 |
The guy is a good jew of course and that is exactly why we use the term ZIONISM as we know all the jews are not bad afterall. All jews are not Zionist and also all zionist are not jews as we have the christian zionist in america who the far right religous groups. |
Re: My Expulsion From Israel - By Richard Falk by Lagosboy: 12:02am On Jan 03, 2009 |
The guy is a good jew of course and that is exactly why we use the term ZIONISM as we know all the jews are not bad afterall. All jews are not Zionist and also all zionist are not jews as we have the christian zionist in america who the far right religous groups. Also some arab leaders like Mubarak of egypt deserves to be called a Zionist as well!!! |
Re: My Expulsion From Israel - By Richard Falk by RichyBlacK(m): 1:47pm On Jan 03, 2009 |
Lagosboy: That's true. There are many Jews like Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein and many Rabbis who are not Zionists, and we have so-called Christians and even Muslims who are Zionists. See Jews United Against Zionism Not all Jews are Zionists! |
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