(JTA) – A United Nations commission formed to investigate alleged human rights abuses in Israel and the Palestinian Territories is under renewed scrutiny this week as two prominent American diplomats have accused one of its members of anti-Israel and antisemitic speech.
Deborah Lipstadt, the State Department’s special envoy on antisemitism, and Michèle Taylor, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Council, both condemned Miloon Kothari, a diplomat who sits on the council’s Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Including East Jerusalem, and in Israel.
In an interview with pro-Palestinian website Mondoweiss this week, Kothari questioned “why [Israel is] even a member of the United Nations,” and made a comment linking social media efforts to discredit the commission to “the Jewish lobby,” comments the diplomats said were anti-Israel and antisemitic.
“Outrageous that an [UN Human Rights Council] appointed human rights expert on Israel and the West Bank and Gaza repeated antisemitic tropes & questioned Israel’s legitimacy as a UN member,” Lipstadt tweeted Thursday.
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