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U.N. Rights Investigator Expelled by Israel
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of New York Times
Posted: December 26th, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/16/world/middleeast/16mideast...
Israeli authorities on Monday expelled Richard Falk, a United Nations investigator of human rights in the Palestinian territories, saying he was unwelcome because of what the government has regarded as his hostile position toward Israel. Mr. Falk, an American, arrived in Israel on Sunday. He was held [overnight] at the airport and placed on the first available flight back to Geneva, his point of departure. Mr. Falk, a professor of international law at Princeton, has the title of United Nations Human Rights Council special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories. He has long been criticized in Israel for what many Israelis say are unfair and unpalatable views. He has compared Israels treatment of the Palestinians to Nazi atrocities and has called for more serious examination of the conspiracy theories surrounding the Sept. 11 attacks. Pointing to discrepancies between the official version of events and other versions, he recently wrote that only willful ignorance can maintain that the 9/11 narrative should be treated as a closed book. In his capacity as a United Nations investigator, Mr. Falk issued a statement this month describing Israels embargo on Gaza ... as a crime against humanity. Regardless of Mr. Falks views, some Israelis questioned the wisdom of banning him, noting that it would hardly make his reports more sympathetic. Jessica Montell, the executive director of BTselem, an Israeli group that monitors human rights in the occupied territories, said that ... barring his entry was an act unbefitting of democracy.
Note: Israel quite explicitly raised the issue of Falk's call for a genuine investigation of the 9/11 attacks in its explanation of his deportation. Why would the state of Israel oppose such an investigation? For information from major media sources on this and many other questions about what really happened on 9/11, click here.
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