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US slams UN expert's call for Israel-related boycott as 'irresponsible'
Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, on Thursday slammed a U.N. expert's call for a boycott of private companies accused of profiting from illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank as “irresponsible and unacceptable.”
The U.N.'s special rapporteur on the human-rights situation in Gaza and the West Bank, Richard Falk, singled out U.S. companies including Caterpillar, Motorola and Hewlett-Packard along with other multinationals in a report to the U.N. on Thursday.
“My main recommendation is that the businesses highlighted in the report — as well as the many other businesses that are profiting from the Israeli settlement enterprise — should be boycotted, until they bring their operations into line with international human rights and humanitarian law and standards,” Falk said in a statement emailed by the U.N.
The U.S. delegation has repeatedly clashed with Falk over his alleged anti-Israeli bias and his suggestion of a U.S. role behind the Sept. 11 attacks, and Rice once again called on the U.N. to let him go.
“Throughout his tenure as Special Rapporteur, Mr. Falk has been highly biased and made offensive statements, including outrageous comments on the 9/11 attacks,” Rice said. “Mr. Falk’s recommendations do nothing to further a peaceful settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and indeed poison the environment for peace. His continued service in the role of a UN Special Rapporteur is deeply regrettable and only damages the credibility of the UN.”
Falk is an American professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University. He was appointed as special rapporteur in 2008 to a six-year term.
