Navi Pillay, the former UN human rights chief, said Miloon Kothari’s comments to Mondoweiss, a website highly critical of Israel, had been deliberately discredited, in a letter to the rights council president released on Thursday . Kothari, a member of the UN’s three-member Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem and Israel, told Mondoweiss in comments published Monday that a lot of money is being spent on efforts to “discredit” the UN. Human Rights Council, which set up the commission to look into the 11-day war between Israel and Hamas last year, and that social media was “largely controlled by the Jewish lobby”. The commission’s role, Kothari noted, was to look at humanitarian law, human rights law and criminal law. “In all three cases, Israel is systematically violating all laws,” he said. “I would go so far as to question why they are even members of the United Nations, because they do not respect — the Israeli government does not respect — its own obligations as a UN member state,” he added. Get The Times of Israel Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories By signing up, you agree to the terms In a letter to UNHRC President Federico Villegas, Pillay said Kothari’s comments “appear to have been taken out of context” and that the committee “feels it necessary to clarify certain issues given the seriousness of the allegations”. Miloon Kothari, a member of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem and Israel, briefs reporters on the Commission’s first report, June 14, 2022. (Jean Marc Ferré/UN) “The commission does not question the status or membership in the United Nations of any of the concerned states of its mandate,” Pillai wrote. He argued that Kothari’s comments about attempts to discredit committee members were “deliberately misreported to imply that ‘social media’ is controlled by the Jewish lobby.” Reached by email, Kothari referred to Pillay’s letter and declined to comment. Kothari’s comments helped fuel criticism of the council, which has long been accused of singling out Israel. “The international community should be outraged by Milun Kothari’s anti-Semitic comments,” said Keren Hajiov, Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s international spokeswoman. “His racist comments about the ‘Jewish Lobby’ controlling the media and questioning Israel’s right to exist as a member of the family of nations – echo the darkest days of anti-Semitism.” General view of the room hosting a special session of the UN Human Rights Council on Ukraine, in Geneva on May 12, 2022. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP) Diplomats and officials from the US, Canada and Britain also spoke out against Kothari’s remarks. The panel is the first to have an open-ended mandate from the UN rights body, and critics say this permanent scrutiny shows an anti-Israel bias in the 47-member council. Advocates support the commission as a way to monitor the injustices faced by Palestinians under decades of Israeli rule. Council spokesman Rolando Gomez cited the Human Rights Council’s “long history of speaking out against all forms of discrimination and racism and strongly condemning such heinous acts.” Navanethem Pillay (second from right), chairman of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem and Israel, briefs reporters on the Commission’s first report, June 14, 2022, in Switzerland. (Jean Marc Ferré/UN) The UN inquiry was launched after the 2021 war to investigate “all alleged violations of international humanitarian law and all alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law” in Israel, East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. Israel has previously said it will not cooperate with the panel, saying its members “have repeatedly taken public and hostile positions against Israel on the very issue they are called upon to investigate ‘independently and impartially’.” Kothari said in a statement released by the UNHRC in June that “ending Israel’s occupation, in full compliance with Security Council resolutions, remains essential to ending the persistent cycle of violence. Only with the end of the occupation can the world begin to reverse historical injustices and move towards self-determination for the Palestinian people.” In his interview with Mondoweiss, Kothari said that the term “apartheid” was a “useful paradigm/framework for understanding the situation but not enough.” A Palestinian protester blocks the road in front of Israeli soldiers in the West Bank neighborhood of Masafer Yatta, which is at the center of a protracted legal battle, July 1, 2022. (Mosab Shawer/AFP) “We need to trace settler colonialism, general issues of discrimination, occupation and other dynamics to get a fuller picture of the root causes of the current crisis… ending ‘apartheid’ will not end the occupation crisis for the Palestinian people… The issue of self-determination requires many other changes,” he said. A report released last month by the committee blamed Israel’s “persistent discrimination against Palestinians” for the violence between the two sides. You are a devoted reader We are really glad that you read X Times of Israel articles last month. That’s why we started the Times of Israel ten years ago – to provide discerning readers like you with the must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world. So now we have a request. Unlike other media, we have not set up a paywall. 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