In a surprising move, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) appointed Indonesian diplomat Makarim Wibisono to replace the controversial special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, Richard Falk. Though Falk’s term as rapporteur has come to a close, his wife, Hilal Elver, was appointed by the council to be special rapporteur on the right to food.
These appointments were first discussed in late March but were postponed for unknown reasons.
Elver, like her husband, is a “9/11 truther” who believes in bizarre conspiracies surrounding the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. She also has promoted the unsubstantiated charge that Israel practices “water apartheid.” The rapporteur on the right to food was created at the suggestion of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, and the previous holder of the position spent much of his time condemning Israel and other Western countries. Given her record, Elver can be expected to use her position in the same way.
The appointment of someone who hold the extreme views of Elver drew a rebuke from the United States, which questioned “her readiness for this assignment” on account of her “biased and inflammatory views regarding the United States and the state of Israel.”
In appointing Wibisono, the council ignored the unanimous recommendation of its vetting committee, which had recommended an American academic, Christina Cerna. However, the Arab League objected to the recommendation because Cerna had not adequately established her anti-Israel credentials. It was originally reported that the council would appoint British professor Christine Chinkin to the post. Chinkin was an author of the discredited Goldstone report, which had judged Israel of war crimes even before investigating Operation Cast Lead.
Instead, the council turned to the Indonesian diplomat, Wibisono, whose country has no diplomatic ties with Israel. UN Watch compiled a number of statements made by Wibisono that call his objectivity into question.
• He has accused Israel of “unconscionable use of force against the Palestinians,” “untenable acts of aggression,” and of having a “policy of retribution against the entire Palestinian nation.”
• Wibisono has referred to the “stark and brutal nature of the policies pursued by the occupying power,” accused Israel of being “the aggressor and the perpetrator of wanton violence,” and repeatedly minimized Israeli suffering, speaking of “the handful of Israelis who have died,” and of Israel’s battle with rocket and other terrorist attacks as a “flimsy pretext.”
• Wibisono openly embraces what he calls the “sacred Palestinian cause.”
Richard Falk may not be a rapporteur much longer, but the UNHRC has ensured that others will carry on his work.
The charges of “water apartheid” that Elver promotes were thoroughly debunked by Akiva Bigman in The Myth of the Thirsty Palestinian, appearing in the April 2014 issue of The Tower Magazine. In the May 2014 issue of The Tower Magazine, Ben Cohen explains how “Israel became the target of an entire UN bureaucracy” in The Deep UN: Inside the Secret Infrastructure of Hate.
[Source: Nido Atmadja / YouTube ]