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9 May, 2014

Outgoing UN Rapporteur Richard Falk on Israel: It’s apartheid – Al-Ahram Weekly

The outgoing UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Richard Falk, submitted in accordance with Human Rights Council (HRC) Resolution 5/1 his last report on the dire conditions under which the Palestinian people have to live. Falk’s final presentation addresses Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the wall in the eyes of the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and considers Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) in light of the prohibition on segregation and apartheid. It also addresses concern in relation to the deterioration of the human rights situation of Palestinians living under the Israeli blockade in the Gaza Strip.

Falk regrets that Israel even refused minimal cooperation in the last six years. The Israeli government expelled Falk in December 2008 when he tried to enter Israel to fulfil his mission as UN special rapporteur. “Such humiliating non-cooperation represents a breach of the legal duty of members of the United Nations to facilitate all official undertakings of the (UN) Organisation.” There has been no protest of the US or any Western nations that usually head the protest front wherever human rights violations occur, with the only exception of the State of Israel.

Read the rest: Falk-on-Israel–It’s-apartheid – Al-Ahram Weekly.