UN Commission of Inquiry says it will investigate apartheid by Israel

The open-ended UN Commission of Inquiry into Israel and the Palestinians says it will investigate apartheid by Israel in the Palestinian territories.

UN investigator Navi Pillay calls apartheid “a manifestation of the occupation.”

“We’re focusing on the root cause, which is the occupation, and part of it lies in apartheid,” Pillay says.

“We will be coming to that. That’s the beauty of this open-ended mandate, it gives us the scope.”

Panel member Miloon Kothari says of apartheid, “We will get to it because we have many years and many issues to look at.”

“We think a comprehensive approach is necessary so we have to look at issues of settler colonialism,” Kothari says.

“Apartheid itself is a very useful paradigm, so we have a slightly different approach but we will definitely get to it.”

The commission is the first to have an open-ended mandate from the UN rights body, and critics say such permanent scrutiny shows anti-Israel bias in the 47-member-state council.

Proponents support the commission as a way to keep tabs on injustices faced by Palestinians under decades of Israeli rule.

Israel has previously said it will not cooperate with the commission, saying its members “have repeatedly taken public and hostile positions against Israel on the very subject matter that they are called upon to ‘independently and impartially’ investigate.”