The three embattled members of the United Nations commission tasked with investigating Israel have quietly resigned, ending their tenure on what critics have long described as one of the most blatantly biased arms of the UN’s human rights apparatus.
Navi Pillay, Chris Sidoti, and Miloon Kothari — the trio behind the UN Human Rights Council’s so-called Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory — submitted resignation letters earlier this month, and few in the pro-Israel world are shedding tears.
Pillay, 83, who chaired the commission and is no stranger to controversy over her hostility toward Israel, cited age and “other commitments” in her resignation letter dated July 8. Sidoti resigned the next day, suggesting Pillay’s exit was a “natural time” to reconstitute the panel. Kothari followed suit, referencing an “understanding” the group had reached in advance. The resignations were posted without fanfare on a UN back-end website and surfaced only after UN Watch, a Geneva-based watchdog, flagged them on Monday.
The commission — the UN’s only open-ended inquiry with a mandate to relentlessly probe Israeli actions — has long been denounced as a political tool disguised as a human rights mechanism. Its reports, predictably one-sided, have repeatedly accused Israel of everything from “stealing natural resources” to “fictional” security concerns. Notably absent: any meaningful scrutiny of Hamas terrorism or Palestinian incitement.
The departures come as the Trump administration doubles down on its effort to hold international institutions accountable for anti-Israel bias. In recent months, the U.S. sanctioned International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan and UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese — both of whom have advanced rhetoric and legal theories aimed almost exclusively at delegitimizing Israel.
Kothari, in particular, drew widespread condemnation in 2022 when he declared that social media was “controlled largely by the Jewish lobby” and questioned Israel’s very membership in the UN — statements that echo some of the most dangerous antisemitic tropes. Rather than rebuke him, Pillay defended his comments and dismissed global antisemitism concerns as “lies” and “a diversion.”
Pillay’s record is no less damning. During her term as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014, she oversaw a period of intense UN obsession with Israel, earning bipartisan rebuke in the U.S. Congress. In one letter, signed by over 100 lawmakers, Pillay was accused of enabling the UNHRC’s “incurable bias,” making it “impossible to take seriously as a human rights organization.”
Now, as the commission’s architects walk away from their roles, critics of the UN’s Israel obsession see a turning point.
“First, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the historic decision to sanction Francesca Albanese,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch. “Now the architects of the UN’s anti-Israel inquisition are fleeing the ship. The tide is turning.”
Anne Bayefsky, director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, called Pillay’s departure long overdue. “She’s spent nearly two decades championing antisemitic causes from some of the highest UN platforms. This is not retirement — it’s an escape.”
Though the commission still formally exists and will likely be restaffed, its credibility — already battered — may never recover. The Human Rights Council, notorious for singling out Israel more than any other country in the world, now faces renewed scrutiny over its mandate, its membership, and its future.
For many, the resignation of Pillay, Sidoti, and Kothari isn’t just welcome news — it’s a small but significant victory in the battle to restore integrity to international human rights discourse.
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One Response
Facts, Facts, Facts, very uncomfortable. Hide the Epstein files, fire the Prosecutor of Epstein from the Justice Department, he might know the facts (the names). Fire anybody and everybody that has ever prosecuted Donald Trump, they must be anti American. Sanction the Judges of the International Criminal Courts and the International Court of Jusice, they have the facts and that is very uncomfortable. Fight a war with all US University’s because the Students are reacting to the facts as they see it, they are all anti semites and anti America. Communist Russia and Nazi were masters in hiding the facts.
I have a suggestion how about revealing your own facts, the courts have all their facts on paper and open for all to see all the detail, fight fact with fact!, what a stupid suggestion.
Why do they all pick on Israel when there are constantly atrocities round the world. Because the alleged war crimes in Gaza are facilitad by US bombs delivered daily during this war, and paid by the US taxpayer to the tune of many billions. The US is a law abiding democracy always accountable to its citizens and Internationally. Don’t kill the messenger, fight him with your facts, .