Prime Minister Yair Lapid, today (Sunday, 31 July 2022), sent a letter to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres demanding, “the immediate removal of all three members of the Commission of Inquiry tasked with investigating Israel, and the disbanding of the Commission.”
Prime Minister Lapid: “Excellency, I call on you today to honor your word in this egregious case, to set the record straight. This cannot stand. Slurs about a ‘Jewish lobby’ that acts to ‘control’ the media are reminiscent of the darkest days of modern history.
“The fight against antisemitism cannot be waged with words alone, it requires action. This is the time for action; it is time to disband the Commission. From Mr. Kothari’s outrageous slurs to Ms. Pillay’s defense of the indefensible, this Commission does not just endorse antisemitism — it fuels it.”
The Prime Minister’s demand comes in the aftermath of antisemitic statements by Commission member Mr. Miloon Kothari, which joins a series of antisemitic incidents as well as the unmistakable anti-Israel sentiment within the UN’s Commission of Inquiry.
This letter is part of a comprehensive and intensive effort led by Israel in recent days.
Thanks to significant efforts, representatives of a number of countries have already condemned Mr. Kothari’s antisemitic remarks, including the United States, France, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, and Austria, as well as the European Union.
Michele Taylor, the US envoy to the council, tweeted,“These unacceptable remarks sadly exacerbate our deep concerns about the open-ended nature and overly broad scope of the CoI and the HRC’s disproportionate and biased treatment of Israel.” Biden Special Envoy, Deborah Lipstadt called Mr Kothari’s comments“outrageous” and “anti-Semitic”.
But, COmmission head, Navi Pillay, said Mr Kothari's words had been taken out of context. "The commission takes great exception to personal attacks against individual commissioners," she said. However, UN HRC President Federico Villegas, the UN's Argentinian ambassador said Mr Kothari should “consider the possibility of public[ly] clarifying his unfortunate comments.”
Attached is the full letter sent to UN Secretary-General Guterres.