Prof. Anne Bayefsky: 'COI says Israel not committing suicide is genocide'

The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel (CoI), published a report this week which concluded there are reasonable grounds to believe that Israel has committed acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza since October 7, 2023.

Professor Anne Bayefsky, President of Human Rights Voices and Director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, told Arutz Sheva - Israel National News that the report is an inversion of the truth that whitewashes Hamas's genocidal intent and actions in its efforts to lay the blame on Israel.

"Far from being a contribution to preventing genocide, the COI report actually encourages genocide against Jews. Because the COI finds excuses for October 7 and sickeningly assigns blame to Israel. In its efforts to demonize and delegitimize Israel’s response, the COI even disputes that Hamas’s attempt at genocide posed an 'existential threat.' Apparently, not enough Jews were harmed to satisfy their perverse 'legal analysis,'" Prof. Bayefsky stated.

She stated: "The COI turns the truth on its head. Israel is supposedly guilty of genocide for failing to open its doors to a flood of Palestinians from Gaza. According to this preposterous claim, Israel has 'trapped' civilians in Gaza by refusing them entry 'into Israel, from where most of their families fled.' In the twisted minds of COI members, unless and until the Jewish state commits demographic suicide, accepts millions of fraudulent refugees and their counterfeit claims to the land of Israel, it is guilty of genocide."

"The bias of the three members is wild," she noted. "In 72 pages, not a single recommendation is directed to Hamas. Their report never condemns tunnels and never acknowledges the 500 km underground terror network that was integral to the October 7 atrocities and the horrors experienced by the hostages. Irrelevant for the COI: the most elaborate, expensive diversion of humanitarian aid in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict - perpetrated by Palestinians."

According to her: "The COI fabricates both law and fact. It repeatedly argues from results, inventing the notion that dead Palestinians must mean Israeli crimes. The actual laws of armed conflict anticipate civilian casualties and require careful application of tests of proportionality and military advantage. There is no such analysis in this fake legal manifesto."

"As for the facts, they just make stuff up. They say Israel is to blame for Gazans being unable to flee to Egypt, while in fact Palestinians, Arab states - including Egypt - and the UN deny Palestinians their right to leave, or seek asylum, or flee the combat zone," she added.

"The report demands more involvement of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in prosecuting Israelis. Put plainly, COI members advocate hounding, pursuing, and grabbing Israelis off the streets of countries around the world and throwing them into jails in the Hague. This is on top of their previous feverish efforts to use the ICC against Israelis and turn American-Israeli cooperation into crimes," she said.

"The COI-ICC connection means that Pillay, Sidoti, and Kothari fall squarely within the parameters of President Trump’s February executive order that was intended to apply sanctions and visa restrictions to those engaged in just such activities. To date, however, all three have avoided the application of the executive order and ratcheted up their extremism instead. Hoping to have the last laugh and dodge sanctions and visa limits, Pillay, Sidoti, and Kothari announced in July an intention to resign, but the resignation is only to take effect in early November after yet another report, and a scheduled late October appearance at the General Assembly. As of now, therefore, Israelis, Americans, and Jews worldwide, can expect more blood libels, more antisemitism, and more incitement to violence whipped up from a UN pedestal," Prof. Bayefsky concluded.