Gross Misconduct Most Foul

"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. It once again starkly demonstrates that he is unfit to serve in his role as a UN special rapporteur."
Closing a UN-accredited NGO could "threaten the independent voice of civil society at the United Nations."
Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, U.S. envoy, UN human rights council

"We call on UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon to denounce Richard Falk's McCarthy-style attempt to have rogue regimes conduct a retaliatory 'investigation' of UN Watch, as a punishment for successfully exposing his gross misconduct."
Hillel Neuer, UN Watch executive director

Ah, the estimable Richard Falk, UN special rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories. Mr. Falk has never seen an Arab terrorist he couldn't feel a special rapport with. After all, the goal of Arab terrorists is to destroy the State of Israel, and to maim and kill as many Jews as can be managed. A goal that Mr. Falk appears to thoroughly approve of. His sinister hatred of the State of Israel, blaming it for anything and everything that goes awry in the Arab world represents a sick neurosis of self-hate.

Although an American academic whom Princeton is no doubt anxious to reclaim, and a Jew, his left-wing credentials are second to none. As a man of letters it might be surprising to some that he is also a conspiracy theorist, one committed to overlooking the trifling terrorism agenda of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, preferring to reference them instead as just due for American interference on the international stage, particularly within the Arab and Muslim world.

He holds, in fact, to the theory that 9/11 really represents a U.S. conspiracy, that the crimes of that notoriously shocking day that shook the world were in fact committed by "the established elites of the American government structure", taking his cue from a book that holds that the World Trade Center attack was "an inside job", and represented by the U.S. government as an attack by terrorists.

Falks' claims are so absurdly outside the realms of reality that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned them, and him as "preposterous", yet no attempt to remove him from the role he plays within the United Nationa has been undertaken. Falk's statements about the real attackers of 9/11 represented "an affront to the memory of the more than three thousand who died in the attack", stated the UN Secretary-General. What would it take to have Ban Ki-moon take decisive steps to dismiss Richard Falk, one must wonder.

According to Richard Falk, Hamas is no terrorist group, but a legitimate governing agency for the Palestinians in Gaza. Hamas is a peaceful organization. He is somewhat less supportive of the West Bank Palestinian Authority, a fact that Fatah deplores, considering his views extreme, and labelling him as a "partisan of Hamas". Mr. Falk, in support of Hamas's legitimacy, declares the State of Israel to be illegitimate, calling for a "legitimacy war" against Israel. The global campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions has his complete approval.

This kind of sentiment and activity hardly makes him a fit, responsible, reliable and trustworthy rapporteur for the United Nations. Under UNHRC Resolution 5/2 he is enjoined to uphold the highest standards of integrity, probity, impartiality, equity and good faith. His employment within the United Nations is, however, not all that surprising, given that institution's monumental failings in so many areas of peace-keeping, diplomacy and support of human rights.

And now Richard Falk has undertaken a campaign within the United Nations to discredit and disempower UN Watch. Based in Geneva, this NGO plays an invaluable role as a watchdog over United Nations' activities. But UN Watch has been unequivocal in its criticism of Richard Falk. And Mr. Falk is doing his utmost to wreak revenge upon an institution that truly is committed to the highest standards of integrity, probity, impartiality, equity and good faith.

Whereas UN Watch holds itself to the highest standards of just conduct and reportage, its adversary feels most comfortable in the muck and mire of comforting and supporting terrorist groups and reviling exemplars of democracy and justice.