Kothari sorry for remarks
'This choice of words was incorrect, inappropriate, and insensitive.'
United Nations investigator Miloon Kothari apologised last Thursday for saying social media is controlled largely by “the Jewish lobby” and for questioning Israel’s membership of the UN.
Kothari, one of three members of a UN Commission of Inquiry investigating rights abuses in Israel and the Palestinian territories, triggered outrage after making the remarks during an interview with online publication Mondoweiss on July 25.
“I wish to sincerely express my regret and unequivocally apologise for using the words ‘the Jewish lobby’. The offence I have caused by using these words has deeply distressed me,” he said in a letter to UN Human Rights Council president Federico Villegas.
He said he took with the utmost seriousness “concerns that my words were perceived and experienced to be antisemitic”.
“My intention was to denounce the relentless and vitriolic personal attacks against the members of the commission on social media and some publications, launched to delegitimise and undermine its work,” he said.
“It was completely wrong for me to describe the social media as ‘being controlled largely by the Jewish lobby’. This choice of words was incorrect, inappropriate, and insensitive.”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry labelled Kothari’s apology “a pathetic and unconvincing manoeuvre, which does not compensate for the long record of anti-Israeli and antisemitic statements made by him and the other COI members”.
The ministry also repeated calls for the disbanding of the commission and the resignation of Kothari. “If the UN is committed to fighting antisemitism and to upholding its values, this is the only reasonable and acceptable result.”
Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel’s ambassador in Geneva, wrote to Villegas last week to protest against Kothari’s “outrageous comments, including some that are evidently antisemitic”.
Several ambassadors, including those from Britain and the United States, also tweeted their outrage.
The interview also led to accusations that Kothari, from India, had questioned whether Israel deserved its UN membership.
“My comment on Israel’s membership of the United Nations was made to highlight the fact that every member of this body should uphold, and respect findings and recommendations issued by it,” Kothari’s apology letter said.
“I did not intend to suggest that Israel should be excluded from the United Nations,” he added. “I realise that this choice of words has also caused offence and sincerely regret it.”
On Sunday, Prime Minister Yair Lapid upped the pressure on the UN to disband the commission, appealing to the UN Secretary-General.
The COI “has been fundamentally tainted by the publicly expressed prejudices of its leadership”, Lapid said, demanding “the immediate removal of all three members”.
TIMES OF ISRAEL, AFP