When hate speech comes from a U.N. human rights official charged with safeguarding others' dignity and well-being in a conflict-riddled region, such speech must be illuminated and countered.
Richard Falk, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories, recently posted this heinous and utterly bizarre anti-Semitic and anti-American image on his personal blog:
Let's dissect this strange one for a moment: here we have a rather onerous dog, sporting both a USA sweater (the dog must live in West Hollywood) and a yarmulke (or Park Slope) pissing on lady justice while chowing down on a bloody mix of bones and flesh.
Would anyone care to parse that one?
While I could spend time here engaging in a meta analysis on the picture's intended messages – oh, such as American Jews having weak bladders – I won't do that here. (But have at it in the comments.)
Instead, I want to take a moment to reflect on why calling out this act – and calling for the removal of Falk from his position – matters to me. Not just as an American Jew. But as an American Jew invested in protecting the dignity and human rights for all peoples involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
For in a conflict that will need, in some form or another, outside assistance from the world community in order to be resolved – regardless of whether help comes from the E.U., U.N., the Quartet, the Arab League...– words and images matter. Particularly words and images coming from those selfsame bodies Israelis and Palestinians will ultimately need if two states are to be formed for two people. If all involved are to achieve self-determination and security.
In a conflict where trust is rare, where suspicions are rampant, hate speech from officials working for intermediary bodies are particularly damaging, not to mention offensive and wrong. For it will take such bodies to bridge the gap in trust that exists between both sides.
Those who know my background know that my reaction to this image is not because it's anti-Semitic, per se. This diary would have been written had the image been posted by a U.N. official in Jerusalem posting a defamatory cartoon of Palestinians.
No, the reaction is because of my investment in finding a resolution to this conflict, a conflict (by the way) that President Obama is now investing a significant amount of foreign-policy capital in resolving.
It's for this reason that I'm contacting the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and asking that Falk be removed from his post.
You can too:
Telephone: +41 22 917 9220
Email: InfoDesk@ohchr.org
And after doing so, I'll grab a beer, sit down and return to the work of the living, the work of those who would like to contribute to fostering discourse rather than discord.
Peace.