A UN report which makes the case that Israel's "occupation" of land over the pre-1967 lines is illegal is antisemitic and written by antisemites, Prime Minister Yair Lapid charged on Friday morning.
This report is "biased, false, inciting and blatantly unbalanced," Lapid said.
'Not all criticism of Israel is anti-Semitism, but this report was written by anti-Semites … and is a distinctly anti-Semitic report," Lapid tweeted.
He spoke up one day after the UN Commission of Inquiry on Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel issued a 28-report to the UN General Assembly's Third Committee.
The Commission of Inquiry's lasting impact
Israel opposed the creation of the COI, claiming it showed bias against Israel.
Most COI that investigate human rights situations are temporary with a limited time frame, this one is open-ended.
Questions have also been raised about the three-person commission, particularly after one of its members Miloon Kothari made a comment that social media was largely controlled by the Jewish lobby. He later apologized for that remark.
Israel has feared that the COI will perpetuate the charge that the Jewish state is guilty of the crime of apartheid, an accusation Lapid has rejected as false.
The COI has not tackled the issue of apartheid, but it did issue a report which argued that Israel's occupation is illegal and called for the International Court of Justice to issue an advisory opinion on the matter.
In June the COI issued a different report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Headed by South African human rights expert Navi Pillay, the COI was formed in the aftermath of the 2021 Gaza war.
Israel's Mission to the UN in Geneva recalled that the COI "was formed when Israel was under attack from thousands of rockets fired from the terrorist organization Hamas. Yet in their first report to the United Nations General Assembly, the Commission chose to make no reference to the conflict in May 2021, no reference to the Hamas, and no reference to acts of terrorism.
"Just two months ago, a member of this Commission of Inquiry made blatant antisemitic comments, comments that were defended by the Chairperson of this Commission.
Commissioners who made antisemitic comments and who proactively engaged in anti-Israel activism, both before and after their appointment, have no legitimacy nor credibility in addressing the issue at hand.
"They are part of the anti-Israel agenda that sadly still exists at the United Nations. The only thing their words and actions do is to continue to damage the credibility of the United Nations and its human rights mechanisms," it stated.
Israel's Ambassador to the UN in New York Gilad Erdan said he plans to issue a sharp response during the October 27th debate.