David Aaronovitch; 18/4/08
I would define a moment of double respect as being when, say, the Pope addresses both houses of Congress or - as happened again last week - when that great institution the BBC quotes an expert from that even greater institution, the UN. The official in question was also the professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, Richard Falk, and his chosen subject was Israel, so I bowed slightly, turned the tap off and put down my razor to hear what he had been saying. The gist of it was this: whereas Falk’s outgoing predecessor as investigator into Israeli conduct, on behalf of the UN Human Rights Council, had only compared Israel to apartheid South Africa, the new man had gone one better and compared it with Nazi Germany. Actually, he’d done this some time ago, before being appointed, but now, of course, his view mattered more. “UN expert stands by Nazi comments” was the headline on the BBC News website. For various reasons Israelis take badly to being compared with the people who attempted to eradicate Jewish life in Europe and I understood Falk’s remarks to have been provocative, as he admitted.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23557033-7583,00.html
Tags: Human Rights, Israel, UN