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All three members of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory tasked with investigating Israel resigned earlier this month.
The resignation letters submitted by the commission’s members, Navi Pillay, Chris Sidoti, and Miloon Kothari, to Jurg Lauber, the president of the UN’s Human Rights Council, were posted on July 14 to a back-end Human Rights Council website. They were first publicized by UN Watch, a nonprofit monitoring group.
Pillay, the commission’s chair, said that she was resigning “owing to age, medical issues and the weight of several other commitments” on July 8. Sidoti resigned a day later, saying Pillay’s retirement was “an appropriate time to re-constitute the commission.” From his side, Kothari said that the group had reached an “understanding” during the previous week.
Following the surprise resignations, Jurg Lauber asked the council’s member states to propose new members by August 31.
Pillar, who headed the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014, is well-known for being a critic of Israel, while Kothari caused a firestorm of controversy in 2022 when he said that social media was “controlled largely by the Jewish lobby.”
The surprise resignations may have been motivated by a fear from the United States, which recently demonstrated its willingness to use sanctions to fight any criticism of Israel from the UN or the International Criminal Court.
Earlier this month, the United States imposed sanctions against UN rapporteur for Palestinian rights Francesca Albanese, who is also a known critic of Israel.
The U.S. also slapped sanctions on ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan in February over his decision to file arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant. While the court is not under the mandate of the UN, it works closely with the organization.
The sanctions against Khan were especially harsh. His U.S.-based assets were frozen and he was barred from entering the country. In addition, he was denied access to his email, and his bank accounts were frozen. According to the Associated Press, his American staffers were also told they were at risk of arrest if they were to enter the U.S.
Netanyahu thanked U.S. President Donald Trump for imposing sanctions on Khan at the time in a statement released by his office.
“Thank you, President Trump, for your bold ICC Executive Order,” Netanyahu said.
He said the order “will defend America and Israel from the anti-American and antisemitic corrupt court that has no jurisdiction or basis to engage in lawfare against us.”
The primer also accused the ICC of waging “a ruthless campaign against Israel,” claiming it to be “a trial run for action against America.”
Following the resignation of the UN Commission of Inquiry’s members, another report revealed ongoing covert pressure on Khan.
The Middle East Eye (MEE) on July 16 said that Khan had been warned that if arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant are not withdrawn, he and the ICC would be “destroyed.”
The warning was delivered in May to Khan by Nicholas Kaufman, a British-Israeli defence lawyer at the court linked to a Netanyahu adviser who said the Israeli Prime Minister legal adviser told him he was “authorised” to make Khan a proposal that would allow Khan to “climb down the tree”, the news website reported.
It is very possible that Pillay, Sidoti, and Kothari received similar threats from Israel or the U.S. before resigning earlier this month.
The pressure the UN and ICC are facing over their attempt to hold Israel responsible for its war on the Gaza Strip, which has so far claimed the lives of around 60,000 Palestinians, reveal fundamental problems with the way such international organizations are being run.
The prevailing Western influence over such organizations has for long made them biased towards not just Israel, but also every other country that is allied to the West or a part of it. Any attempt to resist this influence from within appears to be futile. Thus, deep reforms that would make such organizations more representatives of the entire world appear to be desperately needed.
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