Israel
‘Independent’ UN panel accusing Israel of genocide has history of chilling remarks about Jews
The UN Human Rights Council has condemned Israel more times than it has censured Iran, Syria, and North Korea put together
September 17, 2025 08:30
The UN Human Rights Council has condemned Israel more times than it has censured Iran, Syria, and North Korea put together
September 17, 2025 08:30The "independent” UN inquiry that this week claimed a genocide was taking place in Gaza was led by officials with a history of opposing Israel and making inflammatory statements about Jews.
The inquiry into Israel’s conduct in Gaza and the West Bank was established in 2021 by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) – itself notorious for having condemned Israel more times than it has censured Iran, Syria and North Korea put together.
The three-member panel on the “Independent Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territories” – consisting of retired South African judge Navi Pillay, Indian commissioner Miloon Kothari and Australian lawyer Chris Sidoti – found there were “reasonable grounds” to conclude that four of the five genocidal acts defined under international law have been carried out since Hamas started the war in 2023.
However, Pillay, who served as UN High Commissioner of Human Rights from 2008-2014, signed a petition in 2020 lobbying governments to “sanction apartheid Israel”.
Weeks after the May 2021 Hamas-Israel war, she signed a letter to Joe Biden accusing Israel or provoking the war through “aggressive actions” and of practising “discrimination and systemic oppression”.
Hillel Neuer, the head of monitoring group UN Watch, called for her resignation in 2022, saying: “Asking Pillay to head an inquiry examining Israel is like asking a vegetarian to review a steakhouse.
"We are calling on her to do the right thing and to resign immediately.”
Speaking on a podcast for Mondoweiss – an anti-Zionist news website based in the US – in July 2022, Kothari said he was “very disheartened by the social media that is controlled largely by – whether it is the Jewish lobby or specific NGOs, a lot of money is being thrown into trying to discredit us.” Addressing the comment in a formal apology a month later, he said: “It was completely wrong for me to describe social media as ‘being controlled largely by the Jewish lobby.’”
Sidoti, meanwhile, is reported to have told the UN Human Rights Council in June 2022 that some Jews were “throwing around accusations of antisemitism like rice at a wedding”.
In a statement accompanying the report, Pillay said: “It is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and the former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, were all named in the report and accused of “inciting the commission of genocide”.
Israel “categorically” rejected the findings of the inquiry, saying “the report relies entirely on Hamas falsehoods, laundered and repeated by others.
“In stark contrast to the lies in the report, Hamas is the party that attempted genocide in Israel murdering 1,200 people, raping women, burning families alive, and openly declaring its goal of killing every Jew.
“Israel categorically rejects this distorted and false report and calls for the immediate abolition of this Commission of Inquiry.
“Today they released another fake ‘report’ about Gaza.”
The UN was contacted for comment.
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