UN human rights probe condemned for anti-Israel bias

Twenty-seven nations are demanding that the United Nations (UN) Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory including East Jerusalem and Israel stop its “long-standing disproportionate attention given to Israel”.

On 20 June, the United States (US), on behalf of 26 other countries, condemned the ongoing UN investigation into alleged human rights violations in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because of its apparent bias.

“This long-standing disproportionate scrutiny should end, and the council should address all human rights concerns, regardless of country, in an even-handed manner,” read a statement put out by US ambassador to the UN, Michele Taylor, on behalf of the 27 countries.

The statement went on to say, “We’re concerned that the commission of inquiry will further contribute to the polarisation of a situation about which so many of us are concerned.”

Rowan Polovin, the national chairperson of the South African Zionist Federation, said, “The UN Human Rights Council’s [UNHRC’s] inquisition against Israel is a tendentious, prejudicial, and open-ended attempt to demonise, delegitimise, and single out Israel amongst the community of nations. Twenty-seven countries have now condemned the council’s disproportionate focus on Israel and neglect of serious human rights abuses around the world. It’s deliberate that a former South African judge, Dr Navi Pillay, was chosen to lead the commission because of her being a South African with long-standing antipathy towards Israel.”

The UNHRC established this commission of inquiry into “all alleged violations of international humanitarian law and all alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law” in Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip in May 2021. This followed an 11-day surge in deadly violence between Israelis and Palestinians that month.

The commission is chaired by former UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay, who is alleged to be vehemently anti-Israel. She has been working on the probe with India’s Miloon Kothari and Chris Sidoti of Australia.

The commission was charged with looking into “all underlying root causes of recurrent tensions, instability, and protraction of conflict, including systematic discrimination and repression based on national, ethnic, racial, or religious identity”.

Taylor told the UNHRC that the group of 27 countries was “deeply concerned” about the commission of inquiry, which has an open-ended mandate with no closing date.

Though the commission of inquiry delivered its latest report to the UNHRC last week, it’s understood to be continuing its investigations.

“Our examination revealed that the majority of violations are being committed by Israeli authorities, as part of the Israeli government’s goal of consolidating its permanent occupation at the expense of the rights of the Palestinian people,” Pillay said.

International human rights lawyer Hillel Neuer of UN Watch has repeatedly accused Navi of anti-Israel bias, and claims that the UN rules require that all commissioners be impartial. “Pillay is the opposite. On repeated occasions, Pillay has publicly accused Israel of being an apartheid state. She has even signed petitions lobbying governments to ‘sanction apartheid Israel’.”

He has called the commission of inquiry an “anti-Israel inquisition”.

After attending last week’s session in Geneva, Neuer tweeted, “Racist murderers at the United Nations today took their turns stabbing the Jewish state with accusations of evil. The UNHRC’s commission of inquiry on Israel, impartial as the Spanish Inquisition, presented its report. I asked them some questions. The cowards refused to respond.”

In its report, Pillay and her investigators found that authorities in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories were violating Palestinian civil society rights through harassment, threats, arrests, interrogations, detention, and torture. It went on to claim that Israel’s authorities were responsible for the majority of the violations.

“Our report found that Israeli authorities have used a variety of punitive methods intended to deter and interfere with the activities of Palestinian civil society members,” Pillay told the Human Rights Council on Tuesday, 20 June, via video link.

Polovin said that the third report, which was released this month, and the “kangaroo process” in which it was adjudicated, “is littered with anti-Israel bias, ignoring evidence of any Palestinian terror and culpability, and is written to portray Israel in a criminal light”.

“It makes ‘recommendations’ about Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, but never the other way round, reverses cause-and-effect, and ignores the entire context of Palestinian terrorism and extremism against Jews and the Jewish state,” he said.

“To paraphrase Groucho Marx, given the absurdness of the scenario, this isn’t a report to be cast aside lightly, it should be thrown with great force.”

Bafana Modise, the head of communications for the South African Friends of Israel, said, “Article 1 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights clearly states, ‘All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience, and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood’.

“One would assume, based on this definition, that the commission of inquiry would have investigated Palestinian militants and terror organisations for playing a critical role in a number of these atrocities, contributing significantly to a tragic loss of life in the region.

“There’s no spirit of brotherhood to be found in the 1 000 rockets that were fired, by Palestinians, into Israel last month. Sadly, by omitting the facts, the inquiry fails to provide any relevant insights that could be used towards achieving the regional stability required to ensure the collective safety of both Israelis and Palestinians this year.”

Taylor said in the joint 27-country statement, “To be clear, no-one is above scrutiny and it’s this council’s responsibility to promote and protect human rights the world over. We must work to counter impunity and promote accountability on a basis of consistent and universally applied standards.”

Israel Foreign Minister Eli Cohen issued a statement calling the commission’s latest report “one-sided and false”.

Cohen said the commission of inquiry was “a stain on the UN and on the Human Rights Council. Its commissioners were selected for their anti-Israeli positions, and continue in their roles in spite of antisemitic statements.”