Israel Bars UN Envoy After 'Holocaust' Claim

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Israel has said it will refuse a visa for the new United Nations human rights envoy to the Palestinians after he said it was responsible for a “Holocaust in the making” in Gaza.

Richard Falk, a Jewish-American law professor, is to assume the UN post of special rapporteur in June.

	A UN personnel carrier on patrol at the Lebanese border

But the Israeli government is furious as he compared it last year to Nazi Germany and has refused to retract his comments since his appointment.

A spokesman for Israel’s foreign ministry also accused his employers of bias.

Israeli officials want the envoy to evaluate Palestinian human rights violations, including rockets fired on Israeli civilians, alongside any Israeli transgressions.

The ministry has said that Mr Falk will not be issued a visa to enter the country until at least September, when the UN is to re-evaluate his mandate.

In an essay written last year, Mr Falk said that Israel was creating a “Holocaust in the making” for its heavy economic sanctions on Hamas-controlled Gaza.

Arye Mekel, the foreign ministry spokesman, said: “We take it personally. I myself, my grandparents were murdered by the Nazis. How can I react to these comments? They’re very painful.

“This is a very outrageous statement to us and a personal insult to every Israeli. How could he then come up with an objective conclusion about what Israel does or doesn’t do in Gaza?”

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Mr Falk has said he stands by his comments, despite the outcry in Israel.

He said he did not intend the Nazi comparison to be taken literally but wanted to shock the world into action, and said that the Jewish people’s own tragic history has helped Israel evade criticism.

“If this kind of situation had existed for instance in the manner in which China was dealing with Tibet or the Sudanese government was dealing with Darfur, I think there would be no reluctance to make that comparison,” Mr Falk told the BBC.

In the essay, “Slouching toward a Palestinian Holocaust”, he called on foreign governments to intervene in Gaza.

“The recent developments in Gaza are especially disturbing because they express so vividly a deliberate intention on the part of Israel and its allies to subject an entire human community to life-endangering conditions of utmost cruelty,” Mr Falk wrote, adding it was not “an irresponsible overstatement” to associate the Gaza situation with the Holocaust.

The outgoing rapporteur, John Dugard, a South African law professor, was criticised for concluding that the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories bore resemblance to apartheid-era South Africa, citing policies including zones closed to Palestinians, house demolitions and preferential treatment for Israeli cars on roads on the West Bank.

He also said that firing rockets into Israel was a war crime, though his mandate did not specifically include reporting such violations.

Mr Mekel said that Israeli officials refused to meet Mr Dugard in protest against this limited mandate, though he was never refused entry.

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