‘Israel’ says it won’t cooperate with UN human rights abuses against Palestinians probe

Occupied Palestine (QNN)- ‘Israel’ will not cooperate with the United Nations’ inquiry into war crimes committed during its latest war in Gaza last year, and has refused a request by the Commission of Inquiry’s chair to meet with Israeli officials.

According to a letter sent on Thursday to the commission chair, Navi Pillay, that was obtained by Axios, Israel’s Foreign Ministry claimed that the commission is biased and its three members – Pillay, Chris Sidoti and Miloon Kothari – hold anti-Israel positions.

The harshly worded 4-page letter, issued by Israel’s envoy to the United Nations’ institutions in Geneva, Ambassador Meirav Eilon Shahar personally attacks Pillay over her positions and the Human Rights Council for a “politically motivated” decision to appoint the commission.

Israeli officials say they are highly concerned that the commission’s report expected in June will refer to ‘Israel’ as an “Apartheid state” and that its findings could damage Israel’s reputation, particularly among progressives in the West.

In March, a UN report accused ‘Israel’ of imposing an “apartheid regime,” the first time that such language had been used by a UN body.

Pillay, a South African jurist, has served in several senior UN roles, including a judge at the International Criminal Court.

“There is simply no reason to believe that Israel will receive reasonable, equitable and non-discriminatory treatment from the Council, or from this Commission of Inquiry that you were appointed to lead,” Ambassador Eilon Shahar claimed.

“All three members of the Commission, yourself included, have repeatedly taken public and hostile positions against Israel on the very subject-matter that they are called upon to ‘independently and impartially’ investigate.”

According to the letter, Pillay is “well known for personally championing an anti-Israel agenda and for numerous anti-Israel pronouncements, including the shameful libel comparing Israel to Apartheid South Africa, as well as advocating for the radical BDS campaign against Israel.“

Another member of the commission, Kothari, “has, appallingly, used terms such as ‘ethnic cleansing’ and ‘massacre’ in relation to Israeli actions,” the ambassador further charged. “Curiously, none of the above information appears on the Commission members’ official biography, as published on the website of the COI.”

In July, the UN Human Rights Council approved a proposal put forward by Pakistan to establish the commission Inquiry to investigate last May’s aggression in Gaza when ‘Israel’ killed over 250 people and the root causes of the protracted conflict in the occupied Palestinian territories.

In an unusual move, no time limit was imposed on the commission’s work and its members were charged with gathering evidence that would hold those responsible legally accountable.

The decision by the UN Human Rights Council allows the committee to investigate events beginning around April 13.

Israeli officials believe that the designated timeframe will allow the commission to include the violence that took place on the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City prior to the aggression.

The Israeli ambassador claimed the commission’s members were “appointed because they were tainted by bias, and based on their history of activism and hostile accusations against Israel, so as to guarantee a politically motivated outcome that is tailored in advance… It should be of no wonder that Israel, and anyone who actually cares about human rights and the rule of law, will treat the establishment of the COI, its functioning and its findings accordingly.”

Pillay sent a letter to the Israeli occupation government on Dec. 29 and invited it to cooperate with the commission’s investigation.

The commission told Axios in an emailed statement that it “was requested by the UN Human Rights Council to report back to it on their main activities on an annual basis beginning at the Council’s 50th regular session scheduled for June/July this year.

“Before presenting to the Human Rights Council, at this stage the Commission members do not intend to make public statements nor publicize their communications between the concerned parties so as to preserve the integrity of the work they are carrying out.”

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