Pillay, along with two additional members of the biased Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory resigned on Monday after the Trump administration chose to place sanctions on the UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese over her justifying of terrorism and other anti-Israel actions, including insensitive Holocaust comments.

Israel Hayom discovered that the main reason for the resignation is Pillay's concern that she won't be able to visit her daughter, Isvari Pather, who lives in New York.

Pillay, recognized for her substantial animosity toward Israel, was appointed by the Human Rights Council following Operation Guardian of the Walls to lead the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Through this work, Pillay has routinely presented findings to the International Criminal Court in The Hague (ICC) – collaboration that the Trump administration considers an "attack on America."

Consequently, Secretary of State Marco Rubio imposed individual sanctions last week on Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine recognized as a Hamas supporter, because of her ICC cooperation. Among other measures, she was prohibited from entering the United States.

Pillay maintained even stronger connections with the Hague tribunal. She supervised an 18-person UN team that gathered "evidence" for use against Israel. Pillay also journeyed to The Hague to meet the court's deputy prosecutor, Nazhat Shameem Khan – who coincidentally or not appointed Pillay to her position in July 2021.

Now the Trump administration has transformed the game's rules. Based on information Israel Hayom received from a Western source familiar with the details, Pillay worried she wouldn't be able to visit her daughter, Isvari Pather, and her grandson, who reside in New York.

Given this situation, and likely due to concerns about additional sanctions repercussions, Pillay and the two other committee members resigned from their roles Monday night.

The group UN Watch disclosed Monday night that the three filed resignation letters. Pillay, the investigation committee chairwoman, explained the unexpected step by noting considerations of "age, medical problems and the burden of several additional commitments." Her colleagues, Miloon Kothari and Chris Sidoti, also filed resignation letters.

"The resignation of all three commissioners is long overdue," said Neuer. "This was a commission born in prejudice — mandated to investigate only Israel, while ignoring Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Palestinian Authority. Its members were selected precisely for their hostility to the Jewish state."

The post REVEALED: The real reason the UN's anti-Israel investigator quit appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Israel faces accusations of orchestrating a systematic campaign of gender-based violence against Palestinians, with the UN commission alleging that Israeli forces have deliberately targeted women, destroyed reproductive healthcare, and used sexual violence as a tool of oppression since October 2023.

In a report released Thursday, the United Nations Human Rights Council's Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory alleges that Israeli security forces have systematically employed sexual, reproductive, and gender-based violence against Palestinians since Hamas' deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. The report details a range of violations, from targeted killings of women and girls to the destruction of Gaza's healthcare infrastructure, framing these acts as part of a broader campaign to oppress and destabilize the Palestinian population.

According to the report, spanning over 600 incidents, as of January 2025, over 46,000 people have been allegedly killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, with women, children, and older persons comprising nearly 59% of the 40,717 identified fatalities. Among them, 7,216 women – approximately 18% of the total – have died since hostilities escalated following Hamas' Oct. 7 attack.

The report claims "This is a war against women," as quoted by an obstetrician in Gaza, with the commission attributing these accusations to the Israeli forces' increased use of heavy explosives in residential areas.

The Human Rights Council publication cites a November 2023 killing of Hala Abd Al-Ati, an elderly woman shot by a sniper while holding a white flag in Gaza City and an incident in December 2023 when a mother and a daughter were killed by snipers at Gaza City's Holy Family Parish.

The report details "reproductive violence" through the destruction of healthcare facilities, including the December 2023 shelling of Gaza's largest fertility clinic, which destroyed thousands of embryos and sperm samples, adding that attacks on maternity hospitals and restrictions on medical evacuations have led to increased maternal deaths and miscarriages.

Commission investigators also documented allegations of sexual violence by Israeli forces against Palestinian detainees, including forced nudity and sexualized torture targeting both men and women.

The report concludes these acts potentially constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute, including "measures intended to prevent births," which may be considered genocidal acts.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office denounced the report, saying: "Instead of focusing on the crimes against humanity and the war crimes that were perpetrated by the Hamas terrorist organization in the worst massacre carried out against the Jewish People since the Holocaust, the UN has again chosen to attack the State of Israel with false accusations, including baseless accusations of sexual violence."

Prime Minister Netanyahu added, "The anti-Israel circus known as the UN 'Human Rights Council' has long been revealed as an antisemitic, rotten and irrelevant organization that supports terrorism."

Israel's Foreign Ministry said in a statement: "In regard to the blood libel published by the 'Commission of Inquiry': It is one of the worst cases of blood libel the world has ever seen (and the world has seen many). It accuses the victims of the crimes committed against them." It further emphasized that "Hamas is the organization that has committed horrendous sexual crimes against Israelis. It is indeed a sick document that only an antisemitic organization such as the UN could produce."

Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon has issued a scathing response to the UN report, calling it "another malicious and distorted document from the UN, which continues to serve as a propaganda mouthpiece for terrorist organizations."

Danon stated: "While Israel fights against human beasts who slaughtered, raped and murdered thousands of innocent people on October 7 – the UN repeatedly chooses to stand with the murderers and spread despicable blood libels against the only democratic state in the Middle East."

The ambassador dismissed the report as "not even worthy of the paper it was printed on," adding that "anyone who supported this false publication is complicit in whitewashing Hamas's war crimes and trampling the truth."

Danon claimed that "while Israel goes above and beyond to avoid harming innocent civilians – terrorists fortify themselves in hospitals, use women and children as human shields, and abuse their own population." He concluded by asserting that "history will judge those who supported echoing these lies."

Hagit Pe'er, chairwoman of Na'amat, an Israeli women's organization, said: "The UN supports Nukhba forces and Hamas. This outrageous report attempts to turn the victim into the aggressor. This is a report with a strong smell of antisemitism. There is an attempt here to create an alternative reality that inverts the sexual massacre carried out by Hamas against Israeli women and men amid the deafening silence of international institutions."

A previous report published by the same UN commission in June 2024 accused Hamas and other Palestinian organizations of serious human rights violations during the Oct. 7 attack, including torture, degrading treatment, and "severe acts of rape during the massacre."

The post UN accuses Israel of 'sexual, gender-based violence' appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan tore up the United Nations Human Right Council's annual report at a special General Assembly hearing in New York, Friday.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

"Since its establishment 15 years ago, the Human Rights Council has condemned Israel 95 times compared to the 142 against all other countries in the world combined," Erdan told those in attendance at the assembly.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

"It was on this stage at this very body that the very right of the Jewish people to have a national home was itself declared to be racist - a decision that was justly overturned, a decision that Israel's ambassador at the time, Chaim Herzog, tore up at the United Nations [in 1975 when the world body passed a resolution equating Zionism with racism]. And this is exactly what should be done to this antisemitic, distorted, one-sided report," Erdan said.

Today, I addressed the @UN General Assembly and spoke out against the baseless, one-sided, and outright false accusations from the Human Rights Council's annual report. 1/8 pic.twitter.com/b4YIv2jGaK

— Ambassador Gilad Erdan גלעד ארדן (@giladerdan1) October 29, 2021

He said the report belonged "in the dustbin of antisemitism" before ripping it up and leaving.

In a statement, the UNHRC said it had convened three special sessions this year to address Myanmar, Israel, and Afghanistan this year.

This article was first published by i24NEWS.

The post Israel's UN envoy tears up UNHRC report in General Assembly address appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

The chairperson of the 47-member Human Rights Council appointed Navi Pillay, a former South African judge, to lead a commission of inquiry established at the request of member-states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation following the 11-day conflict between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas in May.

Pillay, who served as UN high commissioner for human rights from 2008 to 2014, is currently a judge at the International Court of Justice tribunal examining allegations of genocide in Myanmar.

The commission's other members are Miloon Kothari, an architect and expert on housing rights from India, and Chris Sidoti of Australia, who has served on panels investigating abuses in Myanmar.

A commission of inquiry is the highest level of scrutiny that the council can authorize. Another COI, for example, has been regularly reporting on Syria's war nearly since its inception a decade ago – partially in hopes of collecting evidence that could be used in court one day.

Israel has criticized the panel's creation and accused the Geneva-based Human Rights Council of bias against the Jewish state.

The United States, under President Donald Trump, quit the council in mid-2018 – partially over his administration's allegations that the council has an anti-Israel bias. President Joe Biden has returned the US to participation, and the US plans to seek a seat next year.

The panel's mandate is to investigate "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."

It has been asked to submit a report to the council in June 2022, and every year after that.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post UNHRC names panel to probe Israeli, Palestinian abuses appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Russia and Cuba were running unopposed, but China and Saudi Arabia were in a five-way race in the only contested race for seats on the Human Rights Council.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

In secret-ballot voting in the 193-member UN General Assembly on that race, Pakistan received 169 votes, Uzbekistan 164, Nepal 150, China 139 and Saudi Arabia just 90 votes. In 2016, the Saudis won a seat with 152 votes.

Despite announced reform plans by Saudi Arabia, Human Rights Watch and others strongly opposed its candidacy saying the Middle East nation continues to target human rights defenders, dissidents and women's rights activists and has demonstrated little accountability for past abuses, including the killing of Washington Post columnist and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul two years ago.

Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now, the organization founded by Khashoggi, said despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin on public relations "to cover his grotesque abuses, the international community just isn't buying it."

"Unless Saudi Arabia undertakes dramatic reforms to release political prisoners, end its disastrous war in Yemen and allow its citizens meaningful political participation, it will remain a global pariah," Whitson said.

Under the Human Rights Council's rules, seats are allocated to regions to ensure geographical representation.

Except for the Asia-Pacific contest, the election of 15 members to the 47-member Human Rights Council was all but decided in advance because all the other regional groups had uncontested slates.

Four countries won four Africa seats: Ivory Coast, Malawi, Gabon and Senegal. Russia and Ukraine won the two East European seats. In the Latin American and Caribbean group, Mexico, Cuba and Bolivia won the three open seats. And Britain and France won the two seats for the Western European and others group.

"Saudi Arabia's failure to win a seat on the Human Rights Council is a welcome reminder of the need for more competition in UN elections," Human Rights Watch's UN director, Louis Charbonneau, said after the results were announced,

"Had there been additional candidates, China, Cuba and Russia might have lost too," he said. "But the addition of these undeserving countries won't prevent the council from shining a light on abuses and speaking up for victims. In fact, by being on the council, these abusers will be directly in the spotlight."

Charbonneau earlier criticized UN member states, including Western nations, saying: "They don't want competition. ... Essentially these are backroom deals that are worked out among the regional groups."

Last week, a coalition of human rights groups from Europe, the United States and Canada called on UN member states to oppose the election of China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Pakistan and Uzbekistan, saying their human rights records make them "unqualified."

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

"Electing these dictatorships as UN judges on human rights is like making a gang of arsonists into the fire brigade," said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch.

The Geneva-based rights organization published a 30-page joint report with the Human Rights Foundation and the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights evaluating candidates for council seats. The report lists Bolivia, Ivory Coast, Nepal, Malawi, Mexico, Senegal and Ukraine – all winners – as having "questionable" credentials due to problematic human rights and UN voting records that need improvement. It gave "qualified" ratings only to the United Kingdom and France.

Human Rights Watch pointed to an unprecedented call by 50 UN experts on June 26 for "decisive measures to protect fundamental freedoms in China," warning about its mass rights violations in Hong Kong and Tibet and against ethnic Uighurs in the Chinese province of Xinjiang as well as attacks on rights defenders, journalists, lawyers and government critics. Their call was echoed by over 400 civil society groups from more than 60 countries.

Of the four winners of seats in the Asia-Pacific group, China got the lowest vote – 139 compared to 180 votes when it won a seat in 2016.

The rights group said Russia's military operations with the Syrian government "have deliberately or indiscriminately killed civilians and destroyed hospitals and other protected civilian infrastructure in violation of international humanitarian law," and noted Russia's veto of UN Security Council resolutions on Syria, including blocking Damascus' referral to the International Criminal Court.

The Geneva-based Human Rights Council can spotlight abuses and has special monitors watching certain countries and issues. It also periodically reviews human rights in every UN member country.

Created in 2006 to replace a commission discredited because of some members' poor rights records, the new council soon came to face similar criticism, including that rights abusers sought seats to protect themselves and their allies.

The United States announced its withdrawal from the council in June 2018 partly because it considered the body a forum for hypocrisy about human rights, though also because Washington says the council is anti-Israel.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday's election of China, Russia and Cuba and last year's election of Venezuela – "countries with abhorrent human rights records" – further  validate the US withdrawal from the council. He said the US has taken its own actions to punish "human rights abusers in Xinjiang, Myanmar, Iran, and elsewhere."

Israel's UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan called on all democracies on the council "to immediately resign from this shameful and anti-Semitic body."

Human Rights Council spokesman Rolando Gomez said when the newly elected members start their three-year terms in January, 119 of the 193 UN member States will have served on the council, reflecting its diversity and giving the council "legitimacy when speaking out on human rights violations in all countries."

"If a State thinks they can conceal the human rights violations they may have committed, or escape criticism by sitting on the Human Rights Council, they are greatly mistaken," Gomez said.

The post China and Russia win seats on UN rights council, Saudis lose appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

This summer marked five years since Hadar was killed by Hamas during a UN ceasefire in Operation Protective Edge.

With each passing day, as the Palestinian terror group refuses to return Hadar (and the remains of another IDF soldier, Oron Shaul), Goldin says they continue to "cruelly torment our family, with their inhumanity seemingly knowing no bounds."

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

The Human Rights Council session will coincide with the opening of the UN General Assembly in New York, where world leaders and heads of state will be gathering.

Although the primary responsibility for Hadar's release rests with Hamas, Goldin will stress that the UN and the international community, under whose watch the ceasefire that took their son was enacted, "bears both moral and legal responsibility for his return."

According to Goldin, there has been a "paradigm shift" in the way her son's case must be approached, in the wake of the UN Security Council's unanimous adoption this June of Resolution 2474, regarding the return of all persons reported missing in armed conflict.

"We know beyond doubt Hamas does not abide by international law. However, for the first time, this resolution shifts the burden of responsibility, by mandating that all nations have a duty to help return the remains of persons reported missing in armed conflict," said Goldin.

"Hadar's return cannot be my mission or Israel's mission alone, and must be the responsibility of all nations of goodwill, who respect international humanitarian law and truly seek peace in our region," she added.

Last month, the Goldins met in New York with UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who reiterated his support of Resolution 2474, calling to "immediately and unconditionally" release Hadar's remains and undertaking to raise the issue during the upcoming UN General Assembly.

Goldin is traveling to Geneva as a guest of UN Watch and is accompanied by human rights attorney and executive director of the Israeli-Jewish Congress, Arsen Ostrovsky.

During her visit, which is also being supported by the Israeli Mission to the UN in Geneva, Goldin will meet with the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has repeatedly been denied access to Hadar, as well hold a number of bilateral meetings with various diplomatic missions and senior officials at the UN.

The post Mother of captured soldier to address UN Human Rights Council appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Insisting his country had the right to "recover" the Israeli Golan Heights, Hussam Edin Aala said, "We demand accountability and we call for impunity to be combated.  We condemn the decision of the Trump administration which is illegal, regarding the occupied Golan."

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

"We need to put an end to the actions of the occupation," which he said was "confiscating" land and "pillaging" resources.

Ala further blasted Jerusalem's practice of holding meetings on the Golan Heights and its decision to name a new community on the strategic plateau after US President Donald Trump as "provocative." He said that through such steps, Washington had encouraged Israel to "perpetrate further war crimes."

The Syrian ambassador further called on Israel to withdraw from "occupied Lebanese territories."

Aala was one of several representatives to call on UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bacelet to publish a database of companies with ties to businesses in Israeli settlements, according to a report in The Jerusalem Post.

He made his comments at the UNHRC discussion of Agenda Item 7, which mandates the council review Israel's conduct at every session.

Israel is the only country with a dedicated agenda item at the Human Rights Council. All other human rights abuses are discussed under Agenda Item 4.

The post Syria has right to recover Golan Heights, country's UN envoy says appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

David Kaye, the UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression, submitted his recommendations in a report published on Tuesday to the UN Human Rights Council, which will open a three-week session next week.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

Kaye said he had received detailed testimony about governments using spyware developed and supported by private companies, but the market was shrouded in secrecy.

"Surveillance of specific individuals – often journalists, activists, opposition figures, critics and others exercising their right to freedom of expression – has been shown to lead to arbitrary detention, sometimes to torture and possibly to extrajudicial killings," he wrote.

"States should impose an immediate moratorium on the export, sale, transfer, use or servicing of privately developed surveillance tools until a human rights-compliant safeguards regime is in place."

In his report, Kaye said government oversight of spyware "hardly exists", and there was an "extraordinary risk of abuse."

Governments were conducting surveillance without fear of any legal consequence, and companies were failing to meet the most basic principles of protecting the human rights of people affected by their products and services.

"Digital surveillance is no longer the preserve of countries that enjoy the resources to conduct mass and targeted surveillance based on in-house tools. Private industry has stepped in, unsupervised and with something close to impunity."

The post UN surveillance expert urges global ban on spyware sales appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.