UN Representative Richard Falk Compares Terror Group Hamas to WWII French Resistance

Richard Falk, the UN's "Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967." Photo: UN Watch.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the ‘Palestinian territories’ has compared Hamas terrorists to French resistance fighters during World War II.

Richard Falk, well known for his anti-Israel positions, made the statements in an article he authored on the website Liberal Democratic Friends for Palestine that repeatedly attacks Israel while defending Hamas.

Falk, who refers to the Israeli government as the “Zionist government,” writes: “Imagine the situation being reversed as it was during the Nazi occupation of France or the Netherlands during World War II. Then Resistance fighters were uniformly perceived in the liberal West as unconditional heroes, and no critical attention was given as to whether the tactics used unduly imperiled innocent civilian lives. Those who lost their lives in such a resistance were honored as martyrs. [Hamas terror chief Khaled] Meshaal and other Hamas leaders have made similar arguments on several occasions, in effect asking what are Palestinians supposed to do in the exercise of resistance given their circumstances, which have persisted for so long, given the failures of traditional diplomacy and the UN to secure their rights under international law.”

Writing  of Meshaal’s “emotional visit to Gaza” last month, Falk also offered excuses for the terror chief’s  “pledge to recover the whole of historic Palestine, from the Mediterranean to Jordan, ‘inch by inch’, no matter how long such a process might take,”  by saying, “The most important element of context that needs to be taken into account is the seeming inconsistency between the fiery language used by Meshaal in Gaza and his far more moderate tone in the course of several interviews with Western journalists in recent weeks.”

This “far more moderate tone” consisted of Meshaal offering a “long-term hudna (truce), provided that Israel ended its occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, and agreed to uphold Palestinian rights under international law. He made clear that these rights included the right of return,” the threat of which Falk, writing of the 4-5 million Palestinian refugees that would flood back into Israel, tempers by saying it “could, at least in theory, threaten the Jewish majority presence in Israel.”

Lastly Falk writes that for Israelis to view the “Gaza speech of Khaled Meshaal as the definitive expression of the Hamas creed” is  “premature and unwise,” and calls for  “a unified and secular Palestine that is governed in accordance with human rights standards and the rule of law, with respect accorded to international law,” if a two-state solution cannot be reached in the very near future.