Profile: Prof Richard Falk

Born into a Jewish family in New York in 1930, Richard Falk grew up to become a distinguished academic, author and public speaker. He is now a professor emeritus of International Law at Princeton University in the United States and the former UN special rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Over the years, Falk has been extremely critical of Israel’s occupation of Palestine and its treatment of Palestinians.

In the past, he has called on the International Criminal Court to investigate Israeli leaders for possible violations of international criminal law, and urged the UN Human Rights Council to ask the International Court of Justice to investigate Israel for acts of “colonialism, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing inconsistent with international humanitarian law” committed during its occupation of the Palestinian territories.