Richard A. Falk, UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories. [UN Photo/JC McIlwaine]

Richard A. Falk, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, has come under attacked from the pro-Israeli lobby for merely daring to speak the truth.

Mr. Falk, 83, is an American professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, and is also the author or co-author of 20 books, as well as editor and co-editor of a further 20 books. In 2008, he was appointed to his present position by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

So just what did he say to provoke such a firestorm from pro-Israeli elements? He simply spoke the truth, saying: "The American global domination project is bound to generate all kinds of resistance in the post-colonial world. In some respects the United States has been fortunate not to experience worse blowbacks." He made his comments in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings. Officials who questioned the surviving perpetrator Dzhokhar Tsarnaev say that he and his brother were motivated by the American-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Although there is nothing wrong with what Falk said, he was fiercely denounced by a number of pro-Israeli elements. The Zionist "UN Watch", in a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, demanded that Prof. Falk be reprimanded for his comments. The letter begins with the lie that Falk's words "justify the Boston terrorist attack." He did nothing of the sort. Even the 9/11 Commission noted in its report that the terrorists were motivated in no small part by U.S. support for Israel's oppression of the Palestinians. Michael Scheuer, former head of the CIA's Osama Bin Laden unit, Alec Station, also wrote in a commentary on the Boston bombing in Foreign Policy Journal, that: "it is blatantly obvious from the evidence the authorities have presented that the attackers were motivated by what the U.S. government does in the Muslim world."

Falk's sin is in speaking uncomfortable truths about U.S. government policy that many Americans don't want to hear. His sin is also in his stand against Israel's lawlessness. He was expelled by Israel in September 2008 after the BBC quoted Falk defending statements he made the previous year equating Israel's treatment of the Palestinians with the Nazis' persecution of the Jews during the Holocaust. Israel's Foreign Ministry subsequently said it would not allow Falk back into the country.

Falk told the BBC that Israel had been unfairly shielded from international criticism -- and let us note here that Falk himself is a Jew.

In light of all this, did he really commit such a terrible sin?

John Dugard, the UNHCR's previous investigator, also compared Israeli treatment of the Palestinians to apartheid, the discriminatory policy of the previous white regime in South Africa toward blacks. Dugard is South African. Former president Jimmy Carter made the same comparison. Can all of them therefore be branded anti-Semites?

It is unfortunate that officials in Canada and Britain, as well as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, have called for Falk to be fired. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also rejected Falk's remarks linking the Boston bombings to U.S. foreign policy, warning UN envoys that their public comments could undermine the credibility of the world body. It is sad indeed that speaking an uncomfortable truth is considered such a sin.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/zhaojinglun.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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