US envoys say antisemitic comments by member of UN probe are ‘unacceptable’

Two US envoys express dismay at recent antisemitic comments made by a member of a UN commission of inquiry into last year’s war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Deborah Lipstadt, the State Department antisemitism envoy, tweets that recent comments by Miloon Kothari are unacceptable.

“Outrageous that an @UN_HRC appointed human rights expert on Israel and the West Bank and Gaza repeated antisemitic tropes & questioned Israel’s legitimacy as a UN member,” Lipstadt tweets. “It is wholly unacceptable that such comments would come from an appointed member of a Commission of Inquiry.

And US Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council Michèle Taylor says the US is outraged by Kothari’s comments.

“We are outraged by recent antisemitic, anti-Israel comments made by a member of the Israel COI,” Taylor writes. “These unacceptable remarks sadly exacerbate our deep concerns about the open-ended nature & overly broad scope of the COI and the HRC’s disproportionate & biased treatment of Israel.”

In a recent podcast interview, Kothari accused a “Jewish lobby” of attempting to control social media discourse on the commission and questioned if Israel should be a member of the UN.