Indian-American Navi Pillay, who is the United Nations official in charge of an investigation into Israel is defending a colleague named Miloon Kothari who came under criticism recently for claiming social media platforms are controlled by a “Jewish lobby”.
Pillay, chairwomen of the United Nations investigation into alleged Israeli human rights crimes said her colleague, is being “unfairly accused of anti-Semitism” after he stated in an interview last week that social media are controlled by an all-powerful “Jewish lobby” that throws around “a lot of money”.
Navi Pillay defended the remarks, saying in a letter sent on July 27, 2022 to the president of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), which helms the Israel investigation, that Kothari was “deliberately misquoted”.
Miloon Kothari was “deliberately misquoted to imply that ‘social media’ was controlled by the Jewish lobby”, Pillay said in the letter, though she did not specify how Kothari was misquoted. Pillay also said that those critical of Kothari’s comments are attempting to discredit the UN investigation into Israel, which has been dogged by accusations it is biased and fueled by animosity toward the Jewish state.
“The commission takes great exception to personal attacks against individual commissioners appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council. Such attacks have been continuously directed against all three commissioners throughout our tenure, and it is to this that Commissioner Kothari was making reference”, Pillay wrote.
Kothari in an interview with the anti-Zionist website Mondoweiss said the “Jewish lobby” is behind social media efforts attempting to discredit the ongoing probe into Israel.
“We are very disheartened by the social media that is controlled largely by whether it’s the Jewish lobby or it’s the specific [nonprofit groups]”, Kothari said. “A lot of money is being thrown into trying to discredit us”.
Kothari also questioned Israel’s membership in the United Nations.
“I would go as far as to raise the question of why [Israel is] even a member of the United Nations”, he said. “The Israeli government does not respect its own obligations as a UN member state. They, in fact, consistently, either directly or through the United States, try to undermine UN mechanisms”.
Miloon Kothari in the interview indicated that he views Israel as an apartheid state but said that term is “not sufficient” to characterize the whole situation.
“We don’t think it’s sufficient to capture the enormity of what has happened in the area”, Kothari said when asked about the subject. The commission “will get to the apartheid question, at some point in the future, because we will be looking at discrimination in general, from the River to the Sea”. The term “from the river to the sea” is often employed by Palestinian leaders who believe Israel has no right to exist and that a Palestinian nation should extend through all parts of the modern-day Jewish state.
Israel’s claim on disputed areas has “been illegal from the beginning,” according to Kothari, who also said Israel does not deserve to be a member of the United Nations.
The UN commission on which Kothari serves was established in the wake of Israel’s 2021 war with Palestinian terror groups, including Hamas. The inquiry was ordered by the UN Human Rights Council, a hotbed for anti-Israel activity. The Trump administration pulled the United States out of the council as a result of this bias, but President Joe Biden rejoined soon after taking office. The Israel commission, which the Biden administration helps to fund, is scheduled in the next several months to report its finding to the organization’s General Assembly.
Kothari disclosed that members of the Israeli inquiry are planning travel to the United States so that they can rally support for their cause with members of Congress. They also are hoping to persuade the Biden administration to drop its opposition to the probe.
