Israel to bar UN official for comparing Israelis to Nazis

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"The Israeli Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that it will not allow the U.N. official appointed to investigate Israeli-Palestinian human rights to enter the country, after he stood by comments comparing Israelis to Nazis.

Richard Falk is scheduled to take up his post with the U.N. Human Rights Council in May, but Israel's Foreign Ministry said it will deny Falk a visa to enter Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, at least until a September meeting of the council.

At that meeting, Israel intends to ask the council to expand the envoy's mission to include investigating Palestinian human rights abuses against Israelis. The mandate currently allows him to monitor only human rights violations by Israel in the Palestinian territories.

Israel will also express its displeasure with the council's choice of Falk as investigator. "If he already believes Israel is like the Nazis, how fair will he be?" said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel.

Israel has objected for years to what it perceives as anti-Israel bias by many U.N. bodies."

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UN expert stands by Nazi comments

<snip>

"The next UN investigator into Israeli conduct in the occupied territories has stood by comments comparing Israeli actions in Gaza to those of the Nazis."

<snip>

"Professor Falk said he drew the comparison between the treatment of Palestinians with the Nazi record of collective atrocity, because of what he described as the massive Israeli punishment directed at the entire population of Gaza.

He said he understood that it was a provocative thing to say, but at the time, last summer, he had wanted to shake the American public from its torpor.

"If this kind of situation had existed for instance in the manner in which China was dealing with Tibet or the Sudanese government was dealing with Darfur, I think there would be no reluctance to make that comparison," he said.

That reluctance was, he argued, based on the particular historical sensitivity of the Jewish people, and Israel's ability to avoid having their policies held up to international law and morality."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7335875.stm

[AdHocSolver]

1. The UN putting an anti-Israel guy in charge of an investigation involving Israel is comparable to...

Bush appointing corporate executives to be in charge of agencies that regulate corporations.

[Shaktimaan]

2. sounds fair.

"If this kind of situation had existed for instance in the manner in which China was dealing with Tibet or the Sudanese government was dealing with Darfur, I think there would be no reluctance to make that comparison," he said.

That reluctance was, he argued, based on the particular historical sensitivity of the Jewish people, and Israel's ability to avoid having their policies held up to international law and morality."

Unlike, say... Tibet or Sudan, who are always compared to Nazis and have had their policies unceasingly held up to international law and morality. Riiiiight. :sarcasm:

So this guy is saying that the only reason people are reluctant to compare Israel to the Nazis is because... a) they are Jewish, and b) Israel has a special ability to avoid having their policies scrutinized. If not for those two things, Israelis are the equivalent of the Nazis?

I think Israel should let him in. Hyperbole like this only hurts Falk's image and makes him seem incapable of objective analysis.