Free Republic

Miloon Kothari, member of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, briefs reporters on the first report of the Commission. UN Photo/Jean Marc Ferré The Commission of Inquiry (COI), a controversial United Nations commission investigating Israel for nearly five years, has collapsed after all three of its members abruptly resigned days after the United States sanctioned a senior UN official over antisemitism. Commission chair Navi Pillay resigned on July 8, citing health concerns and scheduling conflicts. Her fellow commissioners, Chris Sidoti and Miloon Kothari, followed suit days later. While...

Filed at 9:20 p.m. ET GENEVA (AP) -- Israel's policy of building settlements in Palestinian territories and destroying Arab homes and farmland is a war crime, a United Nations investigator said Friday. ``Israel has used the current crisis to consolidate its occupation'' of Palestinian areas, said Miloon Kothari, the housing expert of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. Yaakov Levy, Israel's ambassador to U.N. offices in Geneva, rejected Kothari's ``wild compilation of one-sided accusations.'' Kothari, an Indian architect who visited Israel and Palestinian territories earlier this year, told reporters, ``The serial and deliberate destruction of homes and property constitutes a...