Lapid: UN report on 'Israel' violating international law 'antisemitic'

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Israeli occupation Prime Minister Yair Lapid described on Friday a United Nations report accusing "Israel" of violating international law following the 2021 aggression on Gaza, as "distinctly antisemitic".

On Twitter, Lapid said, referring to Seif Al-Quds Battle, "Precisely because I was not prime minister at the time of Operation ‘Guardian of the Walls,’ I feel obliged to emphasize: The UN report on the operation is biased, false, inciting and blatantly unbalanced."

"Not all criticism of Israel is antisemitism, but this report was written by antisemites (as Israel has already revealed) and is a distinctly antisemitic report," he added.

Lapid's remarks come one day after the UN Commission of Inquiry (CIO) on Occupied Palestinian Territory issued a 28-page report to the UN General Assembly's Third Committee.

In the document that will be presented to and debated during the General Assembly on October 27, the CIO accused "Israel" of violating international law by permanently occupying the West Bank, Al-Quds, and the Syrian Golan Heights.

The report pointed out that "actions by Israel constituting de facto annexation include expropriating land and natural resources, establishing settlements and outposts, maintaining a restrictive and discriminatory planning and building regime for Palestinians and extending Israeli law extraterritorially to Israeli settlers in the West Bank."

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It also accused the Israeli occupation of stealing natural resources and applying discriminatory policies against Palestinians and gender-based violence against Palestinian women.

In addition, the CIO called in its latest report on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague to issue an "advisory opinion declaring that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank territory is illegal."

CIO Commissioner Chris Sidoti indicated that "the actions of Israeli Governments reviewed in our report constitute an illegal occupation and annexation regime that must be addressed."

Sidoti stressed that "the international system and individual states must act and uphold their obligations under international law. That must begin at this session of the General Assembly with a referral to the International Court of Justice."

Similarly, CIO chair Navi Pillay considered that "by ignoring international law in establishing or facilitating the establishment of settlements, and directly or indirectly transferring Israeli civilians into these settlements, successive Israeli governments have set facts on the ground to ensure permanent Israeli control in the West Bank."

Israeli occupation responds, using its weapon of choice "Anti-Semitism"

In response, the Israeli occupation's mission to Geneva rejected the CIO report, claiming that "commissioners who made antisemitic comments and who proactively engaged in anti-Israel activism, both before and after their appointment, have no legitimacy nor credibility in addressing the issue at hand."

It claimed that the issued report damages the UN’s credibility and its human rights mechanisms.

The Israeli occupation's Ambassador to the UN in New York, Gilad Erdan, also indicated that he plans to issue a sharp response on October 27 during a General Assembly meeting.

Read more: “Israel’s” weapon of choice: Anti-Semitism

"Israel" refused to cooperate with CIO, did not alow it into Palestine

Formed in May 2021 after the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, the CIO on Occupied Palestinian Territory is an open-ended commission that was tasked by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate "all alleged violations of international humanitarian law and all alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law” in Palestine, including territory occupied in 1948, occupied Al-Quds, the West Bank, and Gaza.

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Headed by South African human rights expert Navi Pillay, the CIO issued in June 2022 its first 18-page report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, in which it accused the Israeli occupation of committing "persistent discrimination against Palestinians."

It is noteworthy that the Israeli occupation opposed the creation of the CIO, claiming that it is biased against "Israel". The occupation has also refused to cooperate with the commission and has not granted it entry into occupied Palestine.

In response to the commission's first report, the Israeli occupation Prime Minister Yair Lapid claimed that the CIO was "fundamentally tainted by the publicly expressed prejudices of its leadership, who do not meet the basic standards of neutrality, independence, and impartiality required by the United Nations."

In a statement, the Israeli occupation's Mission to the UN in Geneva also claimed that the CIO "was formed when Israel was under attack from thousands of rockets fired from the terrorist organization Hamas. Yet in their first report to the United Nations General Assembly, the Commission chose to make no reference to the conflict in May 2021, no reference to the Hamas, and no reference to acts of terrorism."

"Just two months ago, a member of this Commission of Inquiry made blatant antisemitic comments, comments that were defended by the Chairperson of this Commission," the Israeli mission added.

"They are part of the anti-Israel agenda that sadly still exists at the United Nations. The only thing their words and actions do is to continue to damage the credibility of the United Nations and its human rights mechanisms," the statement claimed.