Israel on Thursday formally announced it would not cooperate with a special commission formed by the United Nations’ top human rights body to investigate Israeli “war crimes” it allegedly committed while defending itself against missiles launched by terror groups in Gaza that killed 14 people in Israel. The decision, delivered in a scathing letter to the commission’s head, Navi Pillay, a former South African judge who not only has a long background of making rabid anti-Israel statements but has actively lobbied against Israel, further strained what already is a tense relationship between Israel and the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council in Geneva. “It is obvious to my country, as it should be to any fair-minded observer, that 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,” said the letter, signed by Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel’s ambassador to the U.N. and international organizations in Geneva. “The probe both reflects and compounds the moral bankruptcy of the Human Rights Council’s obsessive bias against Israel, causing lasting harm to the very values of human rights and respect for the rule of law that it was intended to uphold.” The letter continued to say that three members of the commission, including Pillay, a former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, “have repeatedly taken public and hostile positions against Israel on the very subject matter that they are called upon to ‘independently and impartially’ investigate.” “We expect such bodies to act in good faith, without bias, and not in the service of a pre-determined political agenda. Regrettably, none of this can be expected from this COI.” The letter emphasized that Pillay herself is “well known for personally championing an anti-Israel agenda and for numerous anti-Israel pronouncements, including the shameful libel comparing Israel to apartheid-era South Africa, as well as advocating for the radical BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanction) campaign against Israel.” “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.” Show trials were used by Stalin to crush suspected dissidents. Guilt was determined in advance. Today the UNHRC has its own show trial, an inquiry into Israel's “systematic discrimination.” The chair is Navi Pillay, who lobbies to “sanction apartheid Israel.” It's all fixed. pic.twitter.com/KyMPywd17y — Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) February 18, 2022 UN Watch chief Hillel Neuer wrote about Pillay: “The UNHRC has appointed to lead its controversial investigation on Israel an individual who calls Israel an ‘apartheid state,’ backs the campaign to boycott and sanction Israel, and signs statements lobbying governments to punish the Jewish state.” “She is an active anti-Israel lobbyist who has been made chair of this inquiry. It is astonishing, absurd, and a travesty of justice.” “Never in her U.N. tenure did Pillay use such inflammatory language regarding any other country—not even against serial abusers such as China, Russia, Iran, Syria or North Korea.” “Pillay has also defended the HRC’s ‘agenda item seven’ – under which Israel is the only country, out of 193 U.N. member-states, to be targeted by a permanent agenda item during council sessions.” “The skewed focus on Israel has been slammed by numerous Western governments – several of […]

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