U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan
U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, SusanIsrael news photo: Flash 90

United States ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, called on Wednesday for the dismissal of Richard Falk, a top official on the United Nations Human Rights Council, who attempted to explain the Boston Marathon bombings as a reaction to US policy in the Middle East.

Falk, whose official title is the “U.N. special rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories,” implied that the Boston Marathon bombings were payback for America’s "geopolitical fantasy of global domination" and its friendship with Israel.

“…As long as Tel Aviv has the compliant ear of the American political establishment, those who wish for peace and justice in the world should not rest easy,” Falk wrote in an article published in Foreign Policy Journal.

 He also implied that the Boston terror attack was a justified response to U.S. policies in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.

“Outraged by Richard Falk's highly offensive Boston comments. Someone who spews such vitriol has no place at the UN. Past time for him to go,” Ambassador Rice wrote on Twitter.

The Anti-Defamation League issued a harsh denunciation of his comments, saying “It is outrageous that the U.N. Human Rights Council continues to support such a wildly conspiratorial and highly biased extremist as a reliable ‘expert.”

“Richard Falk has given the Human Right’s Council yet another black eye and his continued affiliation with the international body only serves to undermine its credibility.  His outrageous assertion that the Boston terror attack can be traced to U.S. and Israeli policy is not surprising, given his notorious record of anti-Israel and anti-American propaganda,” said ADL National Director Abraham Foxman.

Jewish groups have long criticized the many anti-Israel statements and biased reports issued by Falk, including comparisons of Israeli actions to those of the Nazis, his use of anti-Semitic imagery and his 2012 U.N. report which endorsed an official boycott of companies conducting business with Israel. 

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has previously condemned Falk, but has stated that he has no authority to remove him from his position.