report to the UN General Assembly.
By Dina Rovner, Legal Advisor at UN Watch
The UN’s biased Pillay Commission of Inquiry is about to present its third report to the UN General Assembly (it’s sixth report in total). Not surprisingly, the Commission accuses Israel of the worst possible crimes, including war crimes and crimes against humanity. Although the report does not expressly charge Israel with genocide, it is intended to buttress the factual and legal record against Israel on this issue. The Commission itself stated that “the investigative findings contained in the present report will be used in cases that are before the Court [ICJ], including the case Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel).” (Para 5). See The Pillay Commission’s Cycle of Lies: From UN Reports to ICJ Advisory Opinion to UNGA Resolution to Legal Position Paper for an example of how the Pillay Commission influences the ICJ.
As with its prior reports, this report whitewashes and legitimizes Hamas and denies Israel’s right to self-defense and security. Some of the deficiencies in the report are discussed below.
Faulty Methodology
The Commission admitted that it did not have cooperation from the State of Israel and, thus, did not have access to classified information concerning the military justifications for Israel’s operations inside Gaza hospitals. Moreover, Israel has no obligation to disclose such information which could compromise its military advantage. Thus, the Commission’s factual analysis was based solely on a one-sided record from mostly unidentified sources, making it impossible to reach reliable factual or legal conclusions. The Commission’s sources included-”confidential information on file and documented by the Commission from victims, witnesses and other reliable sources” (FN 7), one-sided UN reports, unspecified “human rights organizations,” unspecified “investigative reports,” and biased media sources (FN 22).
Critical Facts Omitted
The main focus of the report is condemning Israel’s attacks on Palestinian medical facilities and personnel in Gaza. The report included only one short paragraph addressing Hamas’ attacks on Israeli medical facilities and personnel on and shortly after October 7th. Regrettably, the Commission omitted critical publicly available facts that contradict its anti-Israel narrative and impact the analysis, including:
- Hamas’ Use of Medical Facilities for Military Operations: It is well-established that medical facilities lose protected status under International Humanitarian Law when used for military purposes. Nevertheless, the Commission omitted a comprehensive analysis of Hamas’s well-documented use of Gaza’s hospitals and other medical infrastructure as bases and command centers for its terrorist operations, turning these facilities into legitimate military targets under International Humanitarian Law. Instead, the Commission treated this as an “unsubstantiated claim” by “Israeli security forces” (Para 27) which was denied by both Hamas and “senior medical personnel” at the hospitals who were likely affiliated with or beholden to Hamas. The Commission did not consider testimony by other witnesses such as Ahmed Kahlot, the Director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital, and unaffiliated third parties, including Baxtiyar Baram from Kurdistan, former USAID official Dave Harden, and a UK doctor and an Italian journalist
