The U.S. must take a stand against the UN’s antisemitic commission of inquiry against Israel.
The anti-Israel prejudices of the three investigators on a UN Commission of Inquiry probing the Jewish on behalf of the Palestinians were bared for all the world to see this week.
In a recent podcast with Mondoweiss, a virulently anti-Israel website, Miloon Kothari claimed that social media is controlled by Jews and asserted that Israel’s so-called “apartheid policies” against the Palestinians were serious enough to revoke its UN membership.
The Commission’s leader, South African jurist Navi Pillay, immediately rushed to defend Kothari’s comments. Digging in her heels, Pillay insisted that the remarks merely reflected the commission’s “disappointment” with Israel’s “continued lack of cooperation.”
But Pillay’s whitewash was undercut by Kothari himself on Thursday when he offered an apology — which Israel’s Foreign Ministry rebuffed as “pathetic and unconvincing.”
It’s no secret why Israel is refusing to cooperate with the unprecedented probe, which is odious by even the UN’s standards. The commission was established to examine last year’s 11-day Gaza conflict, but it was given an open-ended mandate to monitor Israeli actions. No UN inquiry has ever been tasked with an ongoing investigation.
Israel is already the only country whose human rights record is a permanent agenda item for the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council.
Although UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and previous High Commissioners criticized the council for only subjecting Israel to this level of scrutiny, Pillay, also a previous UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has repeatedly defended this discrimination.
She also supports Palestinian efforts to label Israel a criminal state “through the language and mechanisms of international law.”
Don’t be fooled by the silence of the commission’s third investigator, Chris Sodati.
The Australian lawyer has been associated with pro-Palestinian non-governmental organizations that raise serious questions about his own impartiality. He is closely associated with non-governmental organizations in Ramallah and Australia that advocate for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel, a campaign ultimately designed to eliminate the Jewish state.
Clearly, Pillay, Kothari and Sodati are all too prejudiced to have any role in probing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The commission was founded in sin and it’s well-known that its ultimate goal is to label Israel an “apartheid state” with the UN’s imprimatur.
Even if the UN throws Kothari under the bus, the commission will soldier on with its efforts to smear Israel. The only resolution to this mess is pull the plug on the probe, as Israeli officials are calling for.
Unfortunately, there’s no sign that this shameless inquiry will be shut down.
The U.S. withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council in 2018, with the Trump administration citing the Council’s chronic bias against Israel and lack of reform. But the U.S. returned to the Council in 2021, with the Biden administration insisting it would be more effective working within the organization.
Sadly, the UN Human Rights Council hasn’t changed. Its kangaroo court not only smears Israel, it makes a mockery of U.S. engagement and does a disservice to the human rights agenda the White House wants to advance.
Tell your elected leaders the U.S. must withdraw from the UNHRC.
Write to President Joe Biden via the White House contact page.
Click to find and contact your U.S. Senator.
Click to find and contact your U.S. Representative.
Write to Secretary of State Antony Blinken via the State Dept. contact page.
