Professor Richard Falk, UN Special Envoy to Human Rights in the occupied territories, stated that the Palestinian Authority’s stance regarding the report of Judge Richard Goldstone is disappointing and a betrayal by the Palestinian Authority (P.A) to its own people.Falk added that the information he received stated that the Palestinian Authority came under US pressures but was not pressured by any Arab or Islamic country.
Falk previously said that the Palestinian Authority
(P.A), the entity which is supposed to represent the Palestinian people, saved Israel from international indictment for committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
“It is really confusing that the Palestinians were the ones who saved Israel and pulled it out of its dilemma”, Judge Falk stated, “Some of the justifications to withdraw the report were that the United States and Israel threatened to cut some of the funding to the P.A, or it could be that Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that the report would kill the peace process. But there is no peace process to kill”.
He also said that some of the speculations in that Israel threatened not to grant any air waves to a new cell phone company, which is owned by the son of president Abbas, should the P.A insist on a UN vote on the report”.
Judge Falk added that those are just speculations made by media agencies, and that he does not have any personal information on the issue”.
My statements, he added, are personal and do not represent the United Nations.
He also said that the position of the P.A creates a feeling that the Palestinian Authority is unable to protect the interests of its own people, and therefore incapable of representing the Palestinian people.
Judge Falk further said that it is important that the Palestinians form a government that represents them, and added that Gaza has elected official who were not given any chance to represent their people.
