UN Watch, a Geneva-based human rights monitoring organization, has called on United Nations rights chief Navi Pillay to fire the UN Human Rights Council’s Palestine expert who admitted that he published a "strongly anti-Semitic" cartoon.
"Richard Falk’s publication of a cartoon depicting Jews and Americans as bloodthirsty dogs is only his latest of several blog posts this year which have harmed the reputation of the UN as a whole," said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch.
The cartoon published on Falk’s blog post of June 29, depicts a dog urinating on a woman symbolizing justice, and devouring a dead body with blood and bones spewing out of its mouth. The dog is shown in a garment marked "USA" and wearing a kippa, the Jewish religious head covering, which is marked by a Star of David.
"The cartoon is manifestly anti-Semitic and, before a worldwide Internet audience, incites hatred against Jews as well as against Americans," Hillel writes in a letter to Pillai.
"Richard Falk clearly lacks the judgment required for a credible human rights figure and moral authority. His support for the Hamas terrorist group is so strong that, as he himself disclosed to the Ma’an news agency, the Palestinian Authority last year urged him to quit. In 1979, he endorsed Ayatollah Khomeini in a New York Times op-ed. These days he offers apologetics for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Osama bin Laden."
According to UN procedure, only the 47-nation Human Rights Council can fire Falk, but in practice, said Neuer, this was unlikely to happen unless Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, led the call.
In January, after Falk suggested a 9/11 cover-up, Ban Ki-moon denounced Falk before the council plenary. "It is preposterous—an affront to the memory of the more than 3,000 people who died in that tragic terrorist attack," he said.
US Ambassador Susan Rice said Falk’s comments were "despicable and deeply offensive." She called for him to be fired, saying that the cause of human rights "will be better advanced without Mr. Falk and the distasteful sideshow he has chosen to create."
Falk’s term was renewed in March.