Richard Anderson Falk (born November 13, 1930)[1] is an American professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University,[2] and Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor's Chairman of the Board of Trustees.
[2][6][7] His being Jewish signifies above all for Falk, "to be preoccupied with overcoming injustice and thirsting for justice in the world, and that means being respectful toward other peoples regardless of their nationality or religion, and empathetic in the face of human suffering whoever and wherever victimization is encountered.
His early thinking was influenced by readings of Karl Marx, Herbert Marcuse, and C. Wright Mills, and he developed an overriding concern with projects to abolish war and aggression as social institutions.
[11] With regard to specific geopolitical situations, he has published books and essays analyzing the ideological aspects of the American Human Rights Debate,[12] the legality of the Vietnam War and other military operations.
[22][24] In 2001, Falk served on a United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Inquiry Commission for the Palestinian territories[25] with John Dugard, a South African based in Leiden University in the Netherlands, and Kamal Hussein, former foreign minister of Bangladesh.
The Palestinian statement went on to refer to Falk as the "author of 54 books on international law" and concluded that his appointment was "a victory for good sense and human rights, as he was a highly qualified rapporteur.
Falk stated: "And still Israel maintains its Gaza siege in its full fury, allowing only barely enough food and fuel to enter to stave off mass famine and disease."
"[53] In October 2009, Falk endorsed the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, also known as the "Goldstone Report," as "an historic contribution to the Palestinian struggle for justice, an impeccable documentation of a crucial chapter in their victimization under occupation.
[54][55]In the same report, Falk said that "Israel is not meeting its obligations as occupying Power to Palestinian children living in Area C" citing a 2009 report by Save the Children UK whose conclusion "is that Israeli policies of land confiscation, expanding settlements, lack of such basic services as food, water, shelter, and medical clinics is at “a crisis point”, with food security problems even worse than in Gaza",[56] that "settlements are often built on the best agricultural land and so as to take advantage of access to water (using 85 per cent of West Bank water either for the settlements or to pump it into Israel, violating the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibition on appropriating the resources of an occupied territory)",[57] that "reports of independent organizations routinely confirm that Israeli soldiers offer the Palestinians no protection against settler violence even when present"[58] and that there is Israeli "ethnic cleansing in occupied East Jerusalem".
[61] Falk wrote that "this report has decided to employ such terms as “annexation”, “ethnic cleansing”, “apartheid”, “colonialist” and “criminality” as more adequately expressing the actual nature of the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories.
[68] At a news conference, Falk stated, "The focus on business activities is partly an expression of frustration about the inability to obtain compliance with these fundamental legal obligations of Israel and the ineffectiveness of the U.N. efforts to condemn settlement expansion."
[74] Falk's annual report, delivered to the Human Rights Council on June 3, 2013, called for an international "commission of enquiry into the situation of Palestinians detained or imprisoned by Israel.
[76] The report criticized the use of arbitrary detention, torture, and coerced confessions and stated, "the treatment of thousands of Palestinians detained or imprisoned by Israel continues to be extremely worrisome."
"[77][78] Falk also called for the Red Cross or a commission of international law experts to establish a convention to address the specific issues related to situations of prolonged occupation.
Mr. Falk's most recent statement – which he dramatically and recklessly included in an official UN document – is characteristic of previous reprehensible comments and actions he has made during his tenure as a special rapporteur.
"[81] A report Falk co-authored with Virginia Tilley, a professor of political science from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, was published in March 2017 by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UNESCWA).
UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary of UNESCWA, Rima Khalaf, said it was the first time a report from a UN body "clearly and frankly concludes that Israel is a racist state that has established an apartheid system that persecutes the Palestinian people".
The Times further reported that Falk "cited the Nuremberg Trials as precedent for defense assertions that private American citizens had 'a right, and perhaps a duty' to actively oppose the war by any means.
[98][99] In a February 1979 New York Times op-ed, published after Khomeini had returned to Iran, Falk wrote: "The depiction of him as fanatical, reactionary and the bearer of crude prejudices seems certainly and happily false."
[98] By the end of 1979, Khomeini had become Supreme Leader of Iran and begun removing moderates from his circles, arresting and even killing political opponents and supporting students who took over the U.S. embassy in Tehran, holding American hostages for 444 days.
"[100][verification needed] In 2017, Falk told the Iranian Tasnim News Agency, "I believe one of the lasting legacies of Imam Khomeini was to give authoritative priority to the Palestinian struggle.
"[106] In November 2008, in an article in The Journal, a student publication in Edinburgh, Scotland, Falk commented: "It is not paranoid under such circumstances to assume that the established elites of the American governmental structure have something to hide and much to explain ....
[111] Speaking on the radio program of 9/11 truther Kevin Barrett in June 2013, Falk said: "questioning that deeply the official version of 9/11 does touch the third rail of American political sensitivities, and there is an attempt to discredit and destroy anyone that makes such a bold statement, and this has intimidated a lot of people.
Identifying himself as a Jewish American, Falk stated that his use of the term Holocaust "represents a rather desperate appeal to the governments of the world and to international public opinion to act urgently to prevent these current [Israeli] genocidal tendencies from culminating in a collective tragedy [for the Palestinians]."
He also criticized American policy towards the nuclear program of Iran and friendship with Israel and wrote that more attacks are likely "if there is no disposition to rethink US relations to others in the world, starting with the Middle East.
[129][130][131][132][133][134][135] Scott McConnell responded to the criticism in The American Conservative: "Amazing for its viciousness and rank dishonesty is the campaign waged against UN special rapporteur for human rights in occupied Palestine Richard Falk for making some pretty straightforward 'blowback' points in the aftermath of the Boston terrorist attack."
He went on to describe how, in his view, "a well-funded neocon group called UN Watch and its various media allies had ginned up an intense public relations campaign, based on falsifying the meaning of his piece, using ellipses to distort its sentences, to claim that Falk had said that the Boston victims somehow deserved their fate.
He wrote that, while the failure of the wars would make it difficult for the US to intervene in the same way in future, he believed that "as long as Tel Aviv has the compliant ear of the American political establishment, those who wish for peace and justice in the world should not rest easy".
[146] British Prime Minister David Cameron instructed the UK's Permanent Representative to express concerns regarding the cartoon and said that he would "continue to closely watch any further actions or comments Mr Falk may make.
"[149] Falk responded by writing, "I have often opposed policies including those of the US and Israel ... but to conflate such stands with racism ... is but one element in a wide ranging and frequently repeated denunciation of my views and activities.