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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Israeli Authorities Detain, Expel U.N. Human Rights Envoy |
| 2008-12-17 |
| Israeli authorities detained a U.N. human rights envoy for more than 20 hours at the Tel Aviv airport before expelling him, putting him on a plane bound for Los Angeles, U.N. officials said Monday. The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed "regret" over the action and said the United Nations had notified Israel in advance of American Richard Falk's plans to visit. "One doesn't expect a U.N. special rapporteur to find himself in that position," said UNHCR spokesman Rupert Colville. The Israeli mission to the United Nations defended the decision, saying that Falk had been repeatedly warned that a visit would not be welcome. Falk, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories, has a long history of criticizing Israel, and Israel contended that his mandate, which provides him with the authority to examine only Israeli abuses against Palestinians, is fundamentally unfair. The expulsion came to light hours before Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in New York to attend a high-level meeting of the Middle East Quartet, the group orchestrating Middle East peace efforts. Rice used the meeting of representatives of the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations as a platform from which to defend U.S. diplomacy in the Middle East. The gathering was further overshadowed by the United Nations' General Assembly President, Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann, who decried Israel's treatment of Falk and blamed the country's diplomats for inciting death threats against him. D'Escoto, of Nicaragua, said the death threats followed "malicious" media reports alleging that he sought to bar Israel's U.N. ambassador, Gabriela Shalev, from commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights before the General Assembly. Israeli and European diplomats said Shalev was scheduled to address the General Assembly as one of five representatives of the United Nations' five regional groups, but D'Escoto abruptly canceled the representatives' speeches. He reversed himself, but only after allowing a much broader slate of speakers, including some of Israel's sharpest critics, to speak to the General Assembly. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #8 Why LA? Soonest flight out that was farthest away from both Israel and New York? |
| Posted by: Pappy 2008-12-17 17:26 |
| #7 Once again, we get half of the story to further the MSM agenda. Here is a link from the Guardian explaining WHY he was denied entry. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/15/middleeast-israelandthepalestinians Apparently our Mr. Falk is a rather well known Holocaust denier. So who better to put on a UNHCR mission to Irael. Typical, totally f*cking typical is all I can say of the UN and the MSM. We should be doing everything in our power to shitcan both of them. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-12-17 10:36 |
| #6 Like Haiti. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-12-17 10:31 |
| #5 Why LA? I could think of some more appropriate locations one could deport a UN busybody to.... |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-12-17 07:47 |
| #4 Shoulda tossed him into a Gaza tunnel, told him to find his own fucking way home. |
| Posted by: Last Breath Farm Resident 2008-12-17 07:34 |
| #3 I'm sorry he got to take his lying tongue with him. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2008-12-17 05:15 |
| #2 Seems simple enough to fix. All the UN has to do is send someone to check out the Palestinians in parallel with their "investigation" of Israeli human rights abuses. |
| Posted by: gorb 2008-12-17 02:55 |
| #1 Pity they didn't beat his ass bloody before they threw him on the plane out. He richly deserves it. |
| Posted by: Jolutch Mussolini7800 2008-12-17 00:31 |