All 3 heads of U.N. anti-Israel inquiry suddenly resign

All three commissioners of the United Nations Human Rights Council’s permanent inquiry against Israel announced their resignations today (Monday).

Navi Pillay, Miloon Kothari, and Chris Sidoti all announced their resignations from the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel. Pillay cited “age, medical issues, and the weight of several other commitments.”

The sudden resignation of all three officials follows the US decision to impose sanctions on UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, another UN official with a history of extreme anti-Israel statements, including denying Israel the right to self-defense against Hamas.

Anne Bayefsky, Director, Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust; President, Human Rights Voices, told Arutz Sheva - Israel National News following the resignations that "Navi Pillay has spent almost the last two decades of her life bashing the state of Israel and promoting grotesque antisemitism from top UN positions. As UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (2008-2014) and as champion of the racist 'anti-racism' Durban conference, she specialized in the promotion of blood libels against Jews. Within three days of October 7th, Pillay's Commission of Inquiry (COI) claimed it had evidence of Israeli crimes, and shouted the ultimate obscenity: the slaughter of Jews was the fault of the Jewish state. The victims were to blame. 'The root cause of the conflict,' Pillay's COI said, was Israel’s 'illegal occupation.' Moreover, Pillay and her COI actually promoted terror. They gave Hamas the political backing to carry on. On October 30, 2023 Pillay said in an interview to Al Jazeera of Palestinian terrorists: 'they are actually forced to resort to armed struggle.' At the same time, in October 2023 Pillay's COI told the General Assembly that Israel has no UN Charter right of self-defense."

"Her right-hand on the COI is Australian Chris Sidoti. Although Sidoti formally resigned today along with Pillay, he was very quick to say in the same message that he would gladly "accept re-appointment." Sidoti is clearly angling to take her place as COI Chair. Given his own horrendous anti-Jewish and anti-Israel record, the UN Human Rights Council President might well oblige. Sidoti is the man who has openly mocked concerns about antisemitism, telling the UN Human Rights Council in June 2023: 'accusations of antisemitism are thrown around like rice at a wedding.' In June 2024, Sidoti demonized Israel's bravest, announcing to the UN in Geneva: 'The Israeli army is one of the most criminal armies in the world.' In June 2025, at the Human Rights Council, Sidoti equated Israeli hostages with what he referred to as Palestinian 'hostages.' In other words, according to his depraved way of thinking, the Bibas babies were equivalent to convicted Palestinian mass murderers. Sidoti told the UN press corps in 2024 that Israel was an 'occupier' of Palestinian territory from its 1948 inception."

"In short, the mandate and purpose of the COI is to bring about the demise of the Jewish state. Pillay chose to spend her old age (she'll be 84 in September) on an anti-human rights mission, championing violence, hatred and intolerance. She will go down in history as one of the most diabolical human rights frauds in human history," Prof. Bayefsky said.

In October 2023, less than a month after the Hamas terrorist organization massacred 1,200 people in southern Israel, Pillay and Sidoti, speaking on behalf of the commission of inquiry, claimed that Israel's right to defend itself in the wake of the massacre was in doubt.

Sidoti stated that "one difficulty that it seems is not being properly addressed in discussing the right to self-defense in those terms, under Article 51 of the UN Charter, is that that’s predominantly framed in terms of an attack by another state upon the first state and defending against state action."

According to him, because Israel does not recognize the State of Palestine, "it may be for that reason that 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."

Navi Pillay, the chairwoman of the Commission of Inquiry, said that the commission would "examine issues such as the right of defense," but stated that Israel's response to the massacre committed earlier that month was "much more retaliation and revenge."

Pillay claimed that even in October 2023, there was "no direct threat to individuals from Israel" since the Hamas invasion of southern Israel was fought back in the days following October 7, ignoring the thousands of rockets that had been fired at Israel every day since the massacre and the repeated attempts to infiltrate Israel again by smaller cells of terrorists, as well as Hamas officials vows to continue carrying out massacres like the one committed on October 7.