Anne Bayefsky
JNS, June 8, 2023
“The process of producing this latest report was Kafka-esque. Pillay told U.N. WebTV that she stood “ready to hear alternate voices” and couldn’t help but draw negative inferences (against Israel) in their “absence.” But all the hearings and meetings were invitation-only, and alternates didn’t make the cut.”
A U.N. “Commission of Inquiry” has released a bombshell report that launches an unprecedented attack on Israel and its defenders, including private individuals and non-governmental organizations “worldwide.”
The move is a dramatic attempt to extend the global reach of a highly controversial venture initiated by the U.N. “Human Rights” Council in May 2021 at the behest of Islamic states without any Western support.
The breadth and scope of the “Inquiry’s” mandate, its huge budget and the absence of any end date made the whole operation unprecedented.
Not unprecedented in U.N. circles was the appointment of members with notorious anti-Israel records in flagrant violation of U.N. rules demanding impartiality, independence and objectivity.
Since their appointment, all three members (Navi Pillay, the chair; Chris Sidoti; and Miloon Kothari), have made a name for themselves by belittling Jewish victims of antisemitism and spreading more of the same.
Upon the presentation of the “Inquiry’s” first report in June 2022, Sidoti told the Human Rights Council that “accusations of antisemitism are thrown around like rice at a wedding.” In a July 2022 online podcast, Kothari said “the Jewish lobby” controls social media and suggested that Israel be kicked out of the U.N. Pillay defended them both. When presenting the “Inquiry’s” second report to the General Assembly in October 2022, Pillay scoffed at charges of antisemitism by telling the press: “This is always raised as a diversion.”
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