This month, a “commission of inquiry” (COI) established by the UN Human Rights Council to find or fabricate evidence of Israeli wrongdoing issued two of its regular reports. The commission, established two years ago and composed of three veteran anti-Israel cranks, is unusual in that its mandate is almost entirely open-ended. Shany Mor comments on what this body has produced thus far:
In [the commission’s way of thinking], the pathology that animates the Arab war against Jews in the Middle East is both unspoken and implicitly adopted. Obsessive hatred of Israel, the cause for so many pointless wars, is not only given no explanatory power for the Palestinian predicament, it is actually internalized as a normative position of human rights. Israel isn’t conceived of as a state that may do bad things, but rather as an entity whose very existence is an affront to all that is good and righteous in the world.
Sometimes this becomes almost self-parodying. The COI’s report promises that a “gender analysis is being mainstreamed throughout the commission’s work.” To this end, every few pages there will be a random reference to Israel’s supposed crimes against women.
The non sequiturs about gender are far more revealing and informative than intended. At first glance, they are disjointed, out of context, and sometimes make improbable inferences about the actual parties to the conflict (is Palestinian society really such a feminist paradise in comparison to Israeli society?). But if you are theologically committed to the idea that one people bears the sins of humanity with them, then it is not a great leap attaching whatever the social ill of the day is to that people. Next year’s report on Israeli abuses might include a few random mentions of how the occupation contributes to climate change or racist policing in the West or whatever new issue arises without materially affecting its quality.
Read more on Algemeiner: https://www.algemeiner.com/2023/06/19/an-inquisition-not-an-inquiry/