Navi Pillay will lead the UNHRC’s Commission of Inquiry which is designed from the outset to declare Israel an "apartheid" state.
Pillay's three-person commission will supposedly look at the “root causes” of the conflict between Israel and Palestinians.
Pillay is a confirmed hater of Israel and apologist for both terror and antisemitism. She was one of the main organizers of the infamous 2001 Durban conference which devolved into an antisemitic hatefest, yet she defended it and later organized its anniversary celebrations that confirmed its anti-Israel agenda in 2009 and 2011 that were boycotted by many Western nations.
During Durban II, she listened respectfully to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Holocaust denying speech even as many representatives left the room and she had an advanced copy of his speech.
In her report on the 2009 Gaza war, she wrote, "Hamas has made public statements that it is committed to respect international human rights and humanitarian law" without skepticism.
She wasn't chosen to head this commission in spite of her hate of Israel, but because of it.
The commission will not find any systemic antisemitism from the Arab side, but it will almost definitely eagerly join the bandwagon of accusing Israel of systemic racism and apartheid against Palestinians.
It is not meant to issue only a single report, like any other Commission of Inquiry. No, when it comes to Israel, the UN makes up new rules. This is a permanent Commission that will report to the UN every year, forever, its only purpose to say how horrible Israel is.
The mandate of the commission makes it obvious that its mission is one-sided. It starts off with:
Investigate in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel all alleged violations of international humanitarian law and all alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law leading up to and since 13 April 2021
What is so special about April 13, and why does it have to be mentioned if the investigation is including all incidents before and since?
That is the date that Palestinians say Israel started all the events that led to war. It was the first day of Ramadan and also Israel's Memorial Day, and President Rivlin was giving his annual speech at the Western Wall. Israeli police cut off power to the minaret loudspeakers on the Temple Mount because their call to prayer was drowning out his speech. Palestinians were incensed and Mahmoud Abbas called it “a racist hate crime.”
The UN is using the Palestinian narrative as its own in creating the mandate for this commission. If it wasn't obvious from the first paragraph, the following ones are specifically designed to find Israel guilty of apartheid, and to collect evidence for that to present to the International Criminal Court, before the members even begin:
Investigate all underlying root causes of recurrent tensions, instability and protraction of conflict, including systematic discrimination and repression based on national, ethnic, racial or religious identity.
Investigate all underlying root causes of recurrent tensions, instability and protraction of conflict, including systematic discrimination and repression based on national, ethnic, racial or religious identity;
Establish the facts and circumstances that may amount to such violations and abuses and of crimes perpetrated;
Collect, consolidate and analyse evidence of such violations and abuses and of crimes perpetrated, and systematically record and preserve all information, documentation and evidence, including interviews, witness testimony and forensic material, in accordance with international law standards, in order to maximize the possibility of its admissibility in legal proceedings;
Document and verify relevant information and evidence, including through field engagement and by cooperating with judicial and other entities, as appropriate;
Identify, where possible, those responsible, with a view to ensuring that perpetrators of violations are held accountable;
All this language is designed to condemn Israel and bring it to trial before the commission even meets the first time. It is not meant to determine if Israel is guilty of apartheid - it is created to find how Israel is guilty and to ignore any counter evidence.
To be sure, there will be a perfunctory paragraph in their first report that mentions that Hamas rockets violate international law buried in the middle of 200 pages of accusing Israel of every crime in the book, and adding a few new crimes to the book for good measure. We've seen this before.
While B'Tselem accused Israel of apartheid earlier this year, it is really Human Rights Watch that has opened the floodgates to allow the accusation to become mainstream and accepted. The narrative is overcoming the evidence, even though nothing fundamental has changed in Israel for decades. The UN is now following this train of thought.
The modern antisemites are setting the stage for a legal attack on Israel's very existence.
