-- Nasir Khan, June 20, 2019
What this article says is an utter fabrication and distortion of the truth about the American Jewish academic Prof Richard Falk.
We all know quite well that he has never said anything against any ethnic group or the followers of any religion, including the followers of Judaism. But the absurd and odious propaganda against this honorable human being, who has stood for peace and justice in Palestine, is a pathetic attempt by this news-site to mislead the people and to falsify the facts about the work of this brave and noble man.
Over the years, he has been a victim of the Zionists' attacks and calumnies, but he has never compromised his principles or stopped his work to appease the Israeli lobby or its global agents. He has valiantly upheld the cause of the people of Palestine, who since 1948 have been ethnically cleansed and marginalized by the colonial-settler state of the Zionist terrorists. He stands on the side of a people who have been the victims of a brutal colonial power, Israel. All those people who stand for peace and justice in Palestine are proud to have Richard Falk as a clear voice of reason and truth.
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https://www.marxists.org/archive/lunachar/works/silhouet/plek.htm
Furore over Falk visit
Richard Falk is set to speak in Sydney next month. Photo: Peter Haskin
JEWISH
communal leaders are concerned about plans for Richard Falk, a US
academic who has endorsed conspiracy theories and who is widely accused
of antisemitism, to visit Australia to speak at the NSW Parliament and
at the University of Sydney.
Falk, who for six years was UN Special
Rapporteur on Palestinian Human Rights, has consistently maligned Israel
with anti-Jewish tropes.
Invited this year to address NSW
Parliament by Greens MP David Shoebridge, co-convenor of NSW
Parliament’s Friends of Palestine group, Falk’s July 4 speech will be on
A Future for Palestine: BDS, International Law and Beyond.
During his visit, organised by BDS
Australia, he was also scheduled to speak on “Israeli apartheid,
international law and the academic boycott” at a talk sponsored by the
Sydney Staff for BDS group at the University of Sydney. The Australasian
Union of Jewish Students (AUJS) has written to the university’s
vice-chancellor Michael Spence to protest.
Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC) chair
Dvir Abramovich, meanwhile, has written to Immigration Minister David
Coleman asking him to refuse or revoke Falk’s visa.
In a 2007 article titled “Slouching
toward a Palestinian Holocaust”, Falk drew parallels between Israel’s
conflict with Gaza and the Holocaust, and has stated, “Is it an
irresponsible overstatement to associate the treatment of Palestinians
with the criminalised Nazi record of collective atrocity? I think not.”
Falk, who previously visited Australia in
2013, has drawn flak from the British and Canadian governments, former
UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, former US ambassador Susan Rice,
anti-racist organisations, and parliamentarians around the world.
Former British PM David Cameron denounced
Falk for publishing an antisemitic cartoon purportedly about Libyan
dictator Muammar Gaddafi, which showed a dog wearing a Jewish
head-covering urinating on a depiction of justice, and devouring a
bloody skeleton.
Falk was panned for claiming a link
between the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings and US support for Israel. He
endorsed a book alleging the US connived in the 9/11 attacks.
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president
Lesli Berger saw Falk’s visit to Parliament as “problematic on so many
levels. Richard Falk is infamous for blaming Israel and the US for the
Boston Marathon bombing and other equally outrageous remarks; BDS is an
antisemitic policy; and it is entirely unacceptable that David
Shoebridge has helped to facilitate the event by booking the venue. All
of which make this function offensive in the extreme”.
Calling on the NSW Parliament to
reconsider his invitation, Zionist Federation of Australia president
Jeremy Leibler asked, “Where is the public interest test for the NSW
Parliament to host a character like Falk?”
He said Falk “is on the record openly
expressing antisemitic tropes. He has compared Israel to Nazi Germany,
praised terrorist group Hamas and supported the bigoted BDS movement.
Falk’s speaking tour will do nothing to promote meaningful discourse and
dialogue nor objectively and rationally discuss the Israeli–Palestinian
conflict”.
Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs
Council executive director Colin Rubenstein said, “It is clear no public
good can be served by someone with his record coming here to spread
divisive and ugly rhetoric.
“We call upon Immigration Minister David Coleman to assess whether Mr Falk meets the good character test to visit Australia.
“If he does enter Australia, we trust and
expect that Australians will reflect on Falk’s record and treat his
words with appropriate scepticism and disdain.”
ADC’s Abramovich stated, “Anyone who
glorifies Hamas and supports violence against Israelis, and who peddles
hateful slurs and theories should not be welcomed here. Mr Falk has used
antisemitic imagery in the past, and has repeatedly refused to remove
repulsive anti-Jewish rants from his personal blog.”
Stating that his organisation “is deeply
concerned” that Falk is being hosted at the University of Sydney, AUJS
chair Josef Wilkinson said, “Universities should not be welcoming people
who hold ‘Tel Aviv’ responsible for the Boston marathon bombings.”
Insisting “This isn’t a political issue,”
he added that when people with such views are allowed to spread their
agenda in lecture theatres, “Jewish students are sent a very clear
message.”
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