The Richard Falk case, Israeli authoritarianism and Western media

December 17, 2008
Lund, Sweden


B R E A K I N G . . .
Haaretz.com - December 15, 2008
Israel expels UN Human Rights Rapporteur and TFF Associate Richard Falk

(Notice how it says that Falk compared Israelis to Nazis. He never did. Notice how the Foreign Ministry's Simona Helprin's twisting of what she calls UN regulations goes unchallenged by the journalist).

And in the coming days, we immediately saw a worldwide outcry, Western human rights advocates, parliamentarians, foreign ministers and mainstream media protest and give wide coverage to this scandal...or silently - once again - turn a blind eye to "exceptionalist" Israel?

Here is the coverage by the International Herald Tribune, exclusively questioning Falk's credentials.

- and here Reuters' - much more detailed and explaining the rules of the game - 1) and 2).

And here the UN News Center's coverage.

(Notice how the Israeli authorities harrassed the 78-year old world expert on international law, human rights and peace).

Now, use the search engine of major media around the Western world and you will see that the big majority does not even mention the story.

Imagine that a UN envoy had been treated this way by Belarus or Zimbabwe - wouldn't you have see hundreds of stories?

But what about the freedom of the Western press? Well it obviously interprets freemdom as the right to turn the blind eye on cruelties committed by the West and its allies, to disregard whatever is politically incorrect in the eyes of its owners and advertisers; and it thrives with the freedom to highlight, say, a pregnant man, a murder case, a celebrity event or a YouTube money-maker instead of millions of people lacking human rights for several decades.

Well, we knew it already - but it is necessary to point it out again and again: The free press freely and frequently fools anyone who cannot set off hours every day to learn for her- or himself about the reality behind the media deceptions (biases, false facts, omissions, propaganda, political correctness, repetitions, half-truths, and worse).

Let's move on: Here comes another story highlighted by a TFF Associate but largely ignored by the mainstream, pro-Israel media:

Per Gahrton
Israel wil now be co-writing the European Union's Middle East policies
Few have noticed the "Guidelines" for EU-Israeli co-operation decided on December 8-9. This amounts to a security pact, argues the author.


And more by Richard Falk. Judge for yourself whether he in any way deserved this harsh treatment and whether this is befitting a country often called a democracy.

Richard Falk
Gaza - Silence is not an option
Press release by the UN Special Rapporteur and TFF Associate.
Richard Falk - UN Special Rapporteur

Richard Falk
Situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied s...
This report attempts to strike a balance between highlighting incidents that illustrate deeper general problems associated with the occupation and discussing patterns of conduct that
appear to violate the human rights of the occupied people.It special theme is the health situation.


TFF's Middle East Portal
Hundreds of articles standing the test of time...

Media in the Middle East - on TNN - TFF News Navigator


TFF covers only a few themes in world politics. But given today's media environment, I believe that we are more needed than ever.

Kind regards

Jan Oberg

JO # 1237