It’s official: long-time Israel basher, academic and UN  “special rapporteur” on Human Rights in Palestine Richard Falk is not just accusing Israel of war crimes in Gaza but, according to the BBC website, questioning “whether Israel acted lawfully in entering Gaza at all”.

So according to Falk, Israel is unique among the countries of the world in possibly not being allowed to defend itself against a barrage of rocket attacks from a neighbouring territory over a period of many years.

Just to balance things up, “He is calling for an independent inquiry to examine possible war crimes committed by both Israel and Hamas.” With one sentence he equates the actions of a terrorist organisation, whose charter reveals that it is dedicated to the physical destruction of Israel, with the country it is trying to destroy and which, perhaps, may not be allowed to defend itself against that terrorist organisation.

There is no question of “possible war crimes” when it comes to Hamas. Falk only needs to stand on the streets of Sderot for a day (but he can’t as Israel won’t give him a visa) and see what are considered harmless rockets raining down indiscriminately on a civilian population. He only needs to ask Hamas when last Gilad Shalit had a visit from the Red cross.

Here are some of Falk’s bons mots from the past:

it is not an irresponsible overstatement to associate the treatment of Palestinians with the criminalized Nazi record of collective atrocity

After writing an article in June 2007 called “Slouching toward a Palestinian Holocaust” he defended his use of the word “Holocaust” by comparing Israel’s policies to the collective punishments used by the Nazi regime in Germany.

He has also accused Israel of “genocidal tendencies”.

In 2006, Yitchal Levanon, the Israeli ambassador to the UN in Geneva said:

He has taken part in a UN fact-finding mission which determined that suicide bombings were a valid method of ‘struggle’

The BBC alludes to Falk’s previous record as a critic of Israel, who is considered biased by the Israelis, without giving the substance of that criticism.

For Falk, Israel, the arch-criminal, should sit on its hands and allow itself to be destroyed. Then, perhaps, he would be wringing his hands and describing a second Holocaust of the Jewish people and investigating Palestinian war crimes in the ruins of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.