PA chooses to side with Antisemitism and hate

When the member of the recently established UN Human Rights Council “Commission of Inquiry," Miloon Kothari, expressed anti-Semitic hate speech and denial of Israel's right to be a UN member, 12 western democracies and the EU were quick to condemn him. Standing out in support of the hate speech was the Palestinian Authority, whose Foreign Ministry rushed to defend the Antisemitism and condemn Israel for condemning it.  

“The [PA] Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemned the attack of incitement and deception that [Israeli] occupation state transitional Prime Minister Yair Lapid carried out against the UN Human Rights Council investigative committee.” 

[WAFA, official PA news agency, Aug. 1, 2022] 

The countries that condemned the anti-Semitic hate of Kothari included, the USA, the UK, Canada, France, Australia, the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Hungry, Belgium and Italy.  

Significantly, while the PA was adamant to criticize Israel’s condemnation of the Antisemitism, it was silent about all the other condemnations, not wanting to insult its donors.  

Referring to that fact that Israel has predominantly ignored the openly biased agenda of the UN and the endless, nonbinding, resolutions it has passed, Kothari said: 

“And in fact, I mean, I would go as far as to raise the question as why are they even a member of the United Nations, because they don’t respect—the Israeli government does not respect its own obligations as a UN Member State. They, in fact, consistently, either directly or through the United States, try to undermine UN mechanisms.” 

Dismissing the international criticism of the biased Commission of Inquiry he is part of, Kothari easily adopted openly anti-Semitic tropes of the media being controlled by the “Jewish lobby”: 

 “And also, I think that it’s not only governments, but we are very disheartened by the social media that is controlled largely by whether it’s the Jewish Lobby or it’s the specific NGOs. A lot of money is being thrown in to trying to discredit us.”   

The reason the PA was so quick to defend Kothari, is because the statements he made predominantly reflect similar statements made over the years by PA officials. 

As Palestinian Media Watch has repeatedly shown, the PA constantly denies Israel’s right to exist and adopts the same anti-Semitic tropes.