On March 24, 2016, the UN Human Rights Council will appoint Michael Lynk as the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, a one-sided position created “to investigate Israel’s violations of the principles and bases of international law.”

Lynk has an extensive history of bias against Israel, including in conjunction with anti-Israel political NGOs:

  • He is on the advisory board of Canadian Palestinian Educational Exchange (CEPAL), a highly politicized group that promotes a Palestinian “right of return,” meaning the elimination of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people.
  • On July 24, 2014, Lynk signed a letter to Canadian leaders accusing Israel of “war crimes,” “indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on civilian life and infrastructure in Gaza,” and “violations of international humanitarian law.” The letter relies on the inaccurate claims of Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International.
  • Lynk has also spoke at a number of events hosted by Amnesty, including a 2014 event titled “Stop the Torture.”
  • On August 11, 2014, Lynk wrote an article accusing Israel of “brutally occup[ying] another people, and keep[ing] the Palestinians of Gaza trapped within… an open-air prison.” The article cites a letter by HRW, Amnesty, and the International Commission of Jurists, urging the Palestinians to “seek access to the ICC in order to end impunity for the ‘serious international crimes’ committed in Israel and Palestine.”
  • In 2013, Lynk wrote an article in Mondoweiss calling to “take Israel to the International Criminal Court” in order to “isolate Israel.” Lynk has also referred to Israel’s establishment in 1948, as “the start of ethnic cleansing.”
  • He was a signatory to a 2009 statement alleging that Israel’s actions “amount to aggression, not self-defence,” were “contrary to international humanitarian and human rights law,” and constituted “prima facie war crimes.”
  • In addition, Lynk has endorsed the “one-state” vision and in 2009, spoke at a “One State Conference” on a panel titled “The Vision: One Country, One State.” Other conference participants included Ali Abunimah, co-founder and executive director of Electronic Intifada; Omar Barghouti of the Palestinian Cultural Academic Boycott of Israel (PCABI); and Ilan Pappe, radical pro-BDS academic and author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.
  • Lynk also promotes an extreme anti-Western political agenda and has blamed the West for the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, denouncing “global inequalities” and “disregard by Western nations for the international rule of law.”
  • See more examples of Lynk’s anti-Israel bias via UN Watch.