Friday, July 08, 2011

U.N. Special Rapporteur Pressured To Resign Over Anti-Semitic Cartoon On His Personal Website

Ambassador Eileen Donahoe, U.S. Representative to the United Nations Human Rights Council, issued a statement yesterday calling for the resignation of Richard Falk, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories because of a now-removed anti-Semitic cartoon which Falk posted on his personal website. She also has sent a letter to the UN High Commissioner complaining about Falk. Falk's June 29 blog posting criticizes the International Criminal Court for issuing arrest warrants for Libya's Mummar Quaddafi, his son, and Libya's intelligence chief.  The posting claims that the Court was being manipulated for political purposes by the United States and NATO. Along with the narrative is a cartoon of Lady Justice being led around by a dog wearing a sweater inscribed USA, wearing a kippah with a Star of David on it, and urinating on the statue.  The dog is chewing on the bones of a skeleton. On Wednesday, Falk issued an apology on his blog, saying that he had not detected the anti-Semitic symbolism in the cartoon before it was pointed out to him, and that then he removed the cartoon. Falk then issued a further explantion in a follow-up blog posting the same day:
Because this unintentional posting of an anti-semitic cartoon has attracted such attention to my blog, and elicited a stream of venomous comments, I want to explain my mistake one last time.... 
Even now I needed a magnifying glass to identify the anti-semitic character of the dog. My vision (at 80) is pretty good, but not good enough. It looked like a helmet to me, and the main visible symbol on the dog was the USA midriff covering. I found the cartoon through a Google image search on the page devoted to the International Criminal Court. Almost all the images there were about the Court or justice, and I assumed that this blindfolded goddess of justice was being led around by the USA. I am quite sure this cartoon would never have been allowed on the Google page if its true content had been realized, and it should be removed. Without a special effort, which admittedly I did not make, this true content is easy to overlook, and even when the initial objection to the cartoon was brought to my attention, and I looked at it, I did not appreciate the objectionable character of what was intended to be communicated.
The NGO UN Watch is also calling for Falk's resignation, as is the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.
[Updated]