The three members of the UN’s Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, tasked with investigating Israel and their conduct in their military operations following the October 7th attack, have quietly resigned, according to The Times of Israel.
Their resignation letter surfaced on Monday.
The commission chair, Navi Pillay, resigned “owing to age, medical issues and the weight of several other commitments” on July 8th. Chris Sidoti resigned on July 9th, saying Pillay’s retirement was “an appropriate time to re-constitute the commission.” And Miloon Kothari resigned after saying that the commission had reached an "understanding" a week prior to their resignations.
The letters were posted on a corner of the Human Rights Council website and were first publicized by the group, UN Watch.
The commission will continue to exist once new members have been appointed. The UN Human Rights Council has asked its members to propose new candidates by August 31st of this year.
The Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory has faced much criticism for overwhelmingly blaming Israel for the ongoing conflict. Pillay is a South African jurist and was the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014. While she held that position, she repeatedly criticized Israel’s actions in Gaza. Kothari was the center of a major controversy in 2022 when he claimed that social media was “controlled largely by the Jewish lobby.” Pillay defended his comments.
The commission has long been accused of bias in favor of Palestinians, and the United States has dismissed it as incapable of delivering a credible or objective assessment of Israel’s conduct.
The commission’s members resigned as the Trump administration has cracked down on UN and ICC investigators into Israel. The US has sanctioned the UN rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, a critic of Israel with a history of antisemitic comments, as well as the ICC's chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, over his decision to submit arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant