Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Richard Falk is Professor Emeritus of International Law and Practice at Princeton University, a prolific writer and, for six years (2008-2014), Special Rapporteur on Palestine for the United Nations Human Rights Council.
In what is conversation more than interview, we talk about the role of the Holocaust in the special US-Israel relationship, Israel’s occupation, and bearing witness while working in a high-level international post. (Produced by Tony Ernst and broadcast on WPKN January 13, 2016)
One Response
This 84 year old has been smiling all day after hearing your podcast this morning. The two of you have put me to shame and inspired me at the same time. I have been too silent regarding the Palestinians for many years, not wishing to alienate my Jewish friends. You both have experienced serious repercussions in speaking out but you keep on talking, keep on writing even though it may appear that your words as just “blowing in the wind.”
As a Texan growing up in segregation, I remember thinking “This is so wrong, but it’s always been this way and is so entrenched it will never end.” That world view was strengthened in the early fifties when we went as volunteers to Lesotho, surrounded by the white South African government. The U.S. was selling troop transport plans to them as it was good for American business. It was hard to imagine that it would ever end and certainly not without great bloodshed.
So I am smiling about HOW WRONG I WAS !
We later moved to American Univ. in Cairo and I went back to college where I was surrounded by Palestinian students in class who related to me as a mother figure since they were out of Palestine in the ’67 War and could never go home again. If caught sneaking back, they would be considered as “terrorists”.
When Israel bombed Cairo on 1/28/1970, knocking out the windows of the new American School, dropping napalm on Egypt’s only steel mill, I am riding a train full of workers everyday and anticipating rudeness. They still got up to give me a seat. Total strangers, students I did not know, invited us to go to tea with them to discuss the bombing by American made F-16s. They politely asked, “Why does America hate us so much? What have we ever done to you?” I lamely replied, “We don’t hate you. We don’t know you.”
We lived in Tehran as my husband, Edward, worked for the U.N. Development Program. I was teaching Parent Effectiveness Training to an international group. At our initial meeting when people were introducing themselves, a young American soldier proudly explained that he was there helping to train the Shah’s SAVAK in the latest interrogation techniques. No Iranian showed up for the next group.
Your podcast has reminded me that the American taxpayer often does not know how their $ is being used, what impact we are having on the lives of ordinary people. The Palestinian story is a blatant example of this.
Your perseverance despite the consequences has brought back a flood of memories of all the good people I have met along the way and my strong belief that we are on the road to seeing, knowing , appreciating the Good in the Other. (I am sending your podcast to everyone I know). Thank you!