TORONTO (JTA) — Canada has called for the removal of a top U.N. official who accused Israel of having “genocidal intentions” against Palestinians.
Ottawa “completely rejects and condemns” the “appalling” remarks made by Richard Falk, U.N. special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird said in a statement.
Canada has previously called for Falk to be fired “for his numerous outrageous and anti-Semitic statements,” Baird said, “and these [latest] comments underscore once more the complete and total absurdity of his service as a UN Special Rapporteur.”
Baird again called on the U.N. Human Rights Council “to remove Falk from his position immediately.”
In a Dec. 15 interview on Russia’s English television news channel RT, Falk was asked about a past article he had written in which he said that Israel was “slouching toward nothing less than a Palestinian holocaust.”
Falk told RT, “When you target a group, an ethnic group and inflict this kind of punishment upon them, you are in effect nurturing a kind of criminal intention that is genocidal.”
Baird said the comments not only “undermine the fundamental values of the United Nations, they also belittle the terrible genocides that have tragically taken place throughout history and around the world.”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Yigal Palmor, also slammed Falk’s statements, The Jerusalem Post reported.
“This man has already branded himself as the radical version of extremism,” Palmor said.
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