New York, NY, April 23, 2013 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today denounced comments by Richard Falk, a top official on the United Nations Human Rights Council, which attempted to explain the Boston Marathon bombings as a reaction to U.S. policy in the Middle East and Tel Aviv.
Mr. Falk, the United Nations Human Rights Council-appointed “Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967,” wrote on Foreignpolicyjournal.com 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,” and also implied that the Boston terror attack was a justified response to U.S. policies in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.
“It is outrageous that the U.N. Human Rights Council continues to support such a wildly conspiratorial and highly biased extremist as a reliable ‘expert,’” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. “Richard Falk has given the Human Right’s Council yet another black eye and his continued affiliation with the international body only serves to undermine its credibility. His outrageous assertion that the Boston terror attack can be traced to U.S. and Israeli policy is not surprising, given his notorious record of anti-Israel and anti-American propaganda.”
ADL has previously spoken out against anti-Israel statements and biased reports issued by Mr. Falk, including comparisons of Israeli actions to those of the Nazis, his use of anti-Semitic imagery and his 2012 U.N. report which endorsed an official boycott of companies conducting business with Israel. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has previously condemned Mr. Falk, but has stated that he has no authority to remove him from his position.