JERUSALEM: Israel denied entry yesterday to a special UN investigator who planned to travel to the Palestinian territories to document human rights conditions, Israeli and UN officials said.
Border police prevented Richard Falk, the UN Special Rapporteur on Israeli behavior in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, from entering Israel when he arrived at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv on Sunday.
Falk had angered Israel by making remarks comparing its forces’ actions in the Gaza Strip to those of the Nazis in wartime Europe. He was put on a plane back to Geneva yesterday. UN officials said Falk, who is Jewish, has been tasked with preparing reports on human rights violations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
In New York, UN spokeswoman Michele Montas said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon “regrets that Falk was denied entry and urges the Israeli authorities to fully cooperate with the special procedures of the (UN) Human Rights Council.” UN General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto, a sharp critic of Israel, called the treatment of Falk “arbitrary,” adding: “Such action by a member state of the United Nations reflects a dangerous decision by individual countries to rebuff UN mandates and UN-appointed mandate-holders.”
A US professor, Falk is fiercely critical of what he describes as “pro-Israel” influence on US foreign policies. Yigal Palmor, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Falk was denied entry because his mandate from the Geneva-based Human Rights Council was “profoundly distorted and conceived as an anti-Israel initiative.” “It has nothing to do with the promotion of human rights,” Palmor said, noting that Falk’s mandate allows him to report only on Israeli violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in the territories.
Human rights group Adalah protested Israel’s decision to deport Falk, calling it a “severe blow to the rights of the Palestinian civilian population living under Israeli occupation.”
Meanwhile, Israeli restrictions on cash shipments to Gaza banks, meant to weaken the territory’s Hamas rulers, are largely counterproductive and ultimately harm Palestinian moderates, top international aid officials warned in a letter to Israel’s prime minister.
The letter, obtained by The Associated Press, was signed by World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and international Middle East envoy Tony Blair. The three also expressed concern about a decision by two Israeli banks to sever correspondent relationships with Palestinian counterparts. The two developments “may have a considerable impact on the Palestinian economy” the letter said.
