The United Nations Human Rights Council Commission of Inquiry released its report accusing Israel of genocide this week. The result is entirely expected, as the COI’S now-former leaders responsible for the report, Navi Pillay, Chris Sidoti, and Miloon Kothari, would find a way to declare Israel guilty even if it had done nothing and allowed Hamas to carry out its threats to commit more massacres on the scale of the October 7 slaughter.
They accomplish this by pretending that Hamas does not exist.
In 72 pages, the terrorist organization responsible for launching the war and for its continuation almost two years later is mentioned just 42 times, often as part of footnotes, and the terrorist, organization is never so much as mildly criticized, let alone condemned. The authors claim that since Israel has only identified 8,900 slain Hamas and Islamic fighters by name, the remaining 83% of the reported casualties in Gaza must be civilians, pretending that every combatant whose name is not known to Israel is an innocent civilian, when in reality, over 20,000 Hamas and Islamic Jihad combatants have been killed.
The words “human shield” never appear in any of the 72 pages, erasing Hamas’s war crimes against its own people. Hamas’s violence against its own people who try to evacuate or to receive food from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is treated as if it does not exist, as is the widespread theft and looting of humanitarian aid by Hamas, which the UN itself acknowledges outside of the report to result in over 95% of the aid never reaching its intended destination.
Most shockingly and damningly, the report treats the massacre of 1,200 people, the mass rapes, the burning of babies, the beheadings, and the slaughter of October 7 as if they never happened. Its “summary of factual findings” begins: “On 7 October 2023, Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza, which included airstrikes and ground operations.”
Why did Israel engage in military action? That part is left out. The fact that Hamas is the party that launched the “military offensive” is completely ignored in favor of the narrative that blames Israel. “Factual findings” only “find” the “facts” the authors want to find. The fact that a massacre was committed against Israelis is only acknowledged in the form of quotes and paraphrases of Israeli officials, which are always used to condemn Israel, not Hamas.
Likewise, the report erases the 250 hostages who were kidnapped on October 7 and the 48 who are still held captive in Gaza today. Israel is accused of holding Gazans hostage, but the existence of the Israeli hostages is again only acknowledged when quoting or paraphrasing Israeli officials to attack Israel.
For the likes of Navi Pillay, Chris Sidoti, and Miloon Kothari, the facts of Hamas’s crimes do not matter at all. All of Israel’s efforts to minimize civilian casualties do not matter. They had their narrative set before the blood of the victims of October 7 had a chance to begin to dry. To them, Hamas’s attempts at genocide are completely justified, while Israelis commit genocide just by living.
These are people who have denied Israel’s right to defend its citizens’ lives after October 7. In October 2023, just weeks after the massacre, Sidoti claimed that since Isral does not recognize Hamas as a state, “the State of Israel cannot claim to act under Article 51 when it is being attacked not by a state, but by a non-state actor,” erasing its right to engage in any act to stop Hamas from murdering Jewish babies. Pillay likewise claimed that "there is no direct threat to individuals from Israel" from Hamas after October 7, so Israel had no right to engage militarily in Gaza after the massacre had ended.
This is the line of thinking that permeates every page of their report. Israel has no right to fight back against Hamas - therefore by fighting at all it is guilty of genocide. All of Hamas’s crimes must be covered up to maintain the charade, because any acknowledgement of the reality or the evil Israel is fighting against would shatter the entire edifice of lies they stand on.
If the COI was serious about stopping genocide, it would condemn Hamas at least as much as it condemns Israel instead of covering for an organization whose entire raison d'etre is to commit genocide. It would condemn the genocidal crimes committed on October 7 and the constant genocidal rhetoric of Hamas’s leaders and members. But to them, genocide is not about action or intent. It is about identity. The Jews are guilty of genocide by virtue of having been born. Hamas is innocent despite its entire existence being based on committing genocide, because to the likes of Navi Pillay, it isn’t genocide when it is done against Jews.
The three people behind this report resigned in July, likely to save themselves from the justified consequences of their attempt to erase Hamas’s crimes from the world’s memory after the US imposed sanctions on the UN’s chief antisemite Francesca Albanese. The report is their parting shot at influencing humanity, their attempt to create a world where it is once again safe to murder Jews without consequence and deadly to be born to Jewish parents.
Unfortunately, the resignation of three Hamas defenders will do little to affect the UN’s continued efforts to ensure Israel’s enemies can fulfill their genocidal ambitions. Next week, France will lead a festival of lies at the UN General Assembly where it and many other nations will recognize the fictitious state of “Palestine,” all while continuing to pretend that Hamas and the hostages do not exist.
No moral person, no decent human being, would dream of doing what Emmanuel Macron is doing, giving genocidal Islamists a state in reward for massacring innocent people and continuing to hold 48 hostages. Like the Human Rights Council’s genocide supporters, Macron and all the leaders who insist on giving Hamas a state must live in the world of make-believe to maintain the illusion that they do not support evil and are not aiding the Hitlers of today. But they are.
Gary Willig is a veteran member of the Arutz Sheva staff.