Just days after Washington sanctioned Francesca Albanese, an “independent adviser” to the United Nations with a long history of Jew-hatred, three U.N. officials, who have also been long accused of antisemitism, resigned from the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Navi Pillay, 83, of South Africa, who chaired the commission, cited her “age, medical issues and the weight of several other commitments” in her July 8 resignation letter, which she said would take effect on Nov. 3.
In a July 10 letter, Miloon Kothari of India wrote that it had been “an honor” to serve and noted his resignation in “confirmation of the understanding we reached during our meeting last week.” Chris Sidoti, of Australia, wrote in his July 9 resignation to Jürg Lauber, president of the Human Rights Council, that “the retirement of the chair is an appropriate time to re-constitute the commission,” but that “I am willing to accept re-appointment to the commission should you so wish.”
“Now the dominoes are falling. Frightened of also being sanctioned, architects of the U.N.’s anti-Israel inquisition are fleeing the ship,” stated Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, which first brought the resignations to light. “The tide is turning.”
Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, stated that “this is a step in the right direction, but there is still a long road ahead.”
“We will not rest until justice and moral clarity are restored in the halls of the United Nations,” he said.
The commission was established to investigate what the world body said are human-rights abuses in Israel and Palestinian-controlled territories. Its three-member entity long drew criticism for being anti-Israel. (JNS sought comment from the U.S. mission to the United Nations.)
Pillay has supported the movement to boycott Israel. Kothari told an antisemitic site in 2022 that social media is “controlled largely by, whether it is the Jewish lobby or it is specific NGOs, a lot of money being thrown into trying to discredit us.” Sidoti has said of antisemitism that Jews throw “around accusations like rice at a wedding.”
“This was a commission born in prejudice, designed to target Israel, while ignoring Hamas, Hezbollah and the Palestinian Authority,” Neuer stated. “Its members were selected precisely for their hostility to the Jewish state.”
“There is still a long road ahead to fix this broken body called the ‘Human Rights Council,’ but maybe things are starting to move due to the measures taken by the United States,” stated Amir Weissbrod, deputy Israeli director-general for the United Nations and international organizations.
“Pillay and her companions signified all that was wrong in this body,” he said. “Not standing with their minimal obligation to be impartial and neutral, having a nomination for life with no scrutiny and a huge waste of resources on endless biased anti-Israeli reports.”
Lauber has requested that member states of the council propose new commission members by Aug. 31.
