A judge chairing a UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) inquiry into alleged abuses of Palestinians has been accused of anti-Israel bias and is facing demands to step down.

The probe was set up after the conflict with Gaza in May last year, with a remit to investigate “all underlying root causes of recurrent tensions”. It is set to publish its findings in June.

The three-member panel is chaired by retired South African judge Navi Pillay. Last June she was among signatories of a letter demanding “US leadership” act “to help bring an end to Israel’s institutionalised domination and oppression of the Palestinian people”.

She told an online event in May 2021: “I think South Africa can raise its moral voice and be very consistent in its support of Palestine. There’s really room for improvement there on how we help Palestine more because of all the people, we who experienced apartheid, know what it’s like to be without land.”

In 2020, she backed a petition calling for sanctions against Israel, “including a boycott on all products from the illegal settlements”, a suspension of trade deals and a military embargo.

Campaigning group UN Watch’s executive director Hillel Neuer said: “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.”

In a letter to the UN last week, Baroness Ruth Deech and six other peers warned: “Rather than serving as an impartial investigatory platform and as a conflict mediator, the United Nations and its agencies have instead exacerbated the tensions fuelling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through deep-seated anti-Israel bias.”

Baroness Deech told the JC: “The inquiry is going to open the door to all enemies of Israel to write in and accuse Israel. It’s biased.”

UNHRC president Federico Villegas said they place “the utmost importance on examining the independence and impartiality of each member” in “selecting members of investigative bodies”.