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Leading law conference drops UN Israel investigator after Hamas attack
(New York Jewish Week) – A United Nations official leading an investigation into Israel was dropped from the schedule of a prominent international law conference in New York City, where she was due to receive an outstanding achievement award and deliver a keynote address.
The investigator, Navi Pillay, is a former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and currently heads the U.N. Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She was slated to receive an Outstanding Achievement Award and speak at International Law Weekend, a gathering hosted from Oct. 19 through 21 by the International Law Association’s U.S. branch.
Last month, however, dozens of centrist and right-wing Jewish groups protested the decision to honor Pillay, signing onto a letter urging law firms to drop their sponsorship of the event. The letter accused Pillay of working “to further a demonstrably discriminatory agenda against the Jewish people and the State of Israel.”
She will still receive the award, but in another setting, and will deliver her speech via webinar at a later date, according to an email the American branch of the law association sent to its board following what it called an “emergency meeting” held Oct. 11, in the wake of Hamas’ attack on Israel and the subsequent war.
According to the email, the award “will not be withdrawn,” and Pillay is listed as this year’s recipient on the association’s website. The email said the conference had attracted “significant attention and controversy” for the group and the event’s sponsors. The decision to “decouple” the award from the conference was made “both out of sensitivity to the outbreak of hostilities over the weekend and due to security concerns for Judge Navi Pillay and others participating.”
Pillay’s name was on the conference program a few days before Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion of Israel, according to an archived web page. Her name does not appear on the current version of the program.
The International Law Association has 63 branches and more than 4,800 members, according to its website. The International Law Weekend, hosted by the association’s American branch, is one of the world’s leading annual conferences on international law. The association’s American branch and Pillay’s U.N. commission did not respond to requests for comment, and the association made no public statement regarding her removal from the program.
Four prominent law firms, including two headquartered in New York, were also removed from the conference’s list of sponsors ahead of the event, as was Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of Law. In their letter protesting the event, the coalition of Jewish groups had asked three of the firms — Debevoise & Plimpton; Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; and White & Case — to cut ties with the conference due to Pillay’s participation. The fourth firm was Winston & Strawn. The firms and Y.U.’s law school did not respond to requests for comment.
Israel, the United States, Jewish groups and other countries have accused Pillay’s commission and the Human Rights Council of bias against Israel. And Pillay has long been a bête noire for pro-Israel groups. As the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights from from September 2008 though August 2014, she often criticized Israel’s actions against Gaza, drawing rebuke from more than 100 members of Congress. The U.N. Human Rights Council and General Assembly both condemn Israel more than any other country.
Pillay’s Commission of Inquiry overwhelmingly blames Israel for its conflict with the Palestinians. Her recent reports, issued before Oct. 7, have not described Hamas as a terror group and rarely mention Israeli terror victims. The commission’s report released a year ago did not mention Hamas at all. Hamas applauded the commission last year.
One member of the three-person investigation, Miloon Kothari, said last year that the “Jewish lobby” controls social media and questioned why Israel was allowed membership in the U.N. Pillay defended Kothari, saying the comments had been “taken out of context.” After the incident, Pillay dismissed charges of antisemitism against the commission as “lies” and a diversion.
Pillay also oversaw the so-called Goldstone report into Israel’s military operation in Gaza in 2008-2009, which accused Israel of war crimes, including deliberately targeting civilians. The report’s lead author, Richard Goldstone, later retracted allegations made in the contentious report, but Pillay has defended the investigation and continues to cite it in her reports for the Commission of Inquiry.
Last year, Goldstone received the award that Pillay is receiving this year. A co-author of the Goldstone report, Christine Chinkin, is the chair of the International Law Association. Last year, Jewish groups criticized the conference for holding a panel on apartheid featuring several harsh critics of Israel.
Following the Oct. 7 attack, the commission said it was collecting evidence of war crimes committed by “all sides,” criticized “armed groups” from Gaza for killing civilians and condemned Israel’s response.
Pillay delivered her latest report, which was written before the current war, to the General Assembly on Tuesday. The report blames Israeli actions in East Jerusalem for Hamas rocket attacks, and criticizes Israel for taking military action against the terror group. The report was delivered on the same day that Israeli officials called for the resignation of U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres after he said Hamas’ attack “did not happen in a vacuum.”
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The post Leading law conference drops UN Israel investigator after Hamas attack appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself. Really?
JNS.org – If I asked you to name the most famous line in the Bible, what would you answer? While Shema Yisrael (“Hear O’Israel”) might get many votes, I imagine that the winning line would be “love thy neighbor as thyself” (Leviticus 19:18). Some religions refer to it as the Golden Rule, but all would agree that it is fundamental to any moral lifestyle. And it appears this week in our Torah reading, Kedoshim.
This is quite a tall order. Can we be expected to love other people as much as we love ourselves? Surely, this is an idealistic expectation. And yet, the Creator knows us better than we know ourselves. How can His Torah be so unrealistic?
The biblical commentaries offer a variety of explanations. Some, like Rambam (Maimonides), say that the focus should be on our behavior, rather than our feelings. We are expected to try our best or to treat others “as if” we genuinely love them.
Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, in his classic text called the Tanya, argues that the actual feelings of love are, in fact, achievable provided that we focus on a person’s spirituality rather than how they present themselves physically. If we can put the soul over the body, we can do it.
Allow me to share the interpretation of the Ramban (Nachmanides), a 13th-century Torah scholar from Spain. His interpretation of the verses preceding love thy neighbor is classic and powerful, yet simple and straightforward.
“Do not hate your brother in your heart. You shall rebuke him, but do not bear a sin because of him” by embarrassing him in public. “Do not take revenge, and do not bear a grudge against your people. You shall love your fellow as yourself, I am God” (Leviticus 19:17-18).
What is the connection between these verses? Why is revenge and grudge-bearing in the same paragraph as love your fellow as yourself?
A careful reading shows that within these two verses are no less than six biblical commandments. But what is their sequence all about, and what is the connection between them?
The Ramban explains it beautifully, showing how the sequence of verses is deliberate and highlighting the Torah’s profound yet practical advice on how to maintain healthy relationships.
Someone wronged you? Don’t hate him in your heart. Speak to him. Don’t let it fester until it bursts, and makes you bitter and sick.
Instead, talk it out. Confront the person. Of course, do it respectfully. Don’t embarrass anyone in public, so that you don’t bear a sin because of them. But don’t let your hurt eat you up. Communicate!
If you approach the person who wronged you—not with hate in your heart but with respectful reproof—one of two things will happen. Either he or she will apologize and explain their perspective on the matter. Or that it was a misunderstanding and will get sorted out between you. Either way, you will feel happier and healthier.
Then you will not feel the need to take revenge or even to bear a grudge.
Here, says the Ramban, is the connection between these two verses. And if you follow this advice, only then will you be able to observe the commandment to Love Thy Neighbor. If you never tell him why you are upset, another may be completely unaware of his or her wrongdoing, and it will remain as a wound inside you and may never go away.
To sum up: Honest communication is the key to loving people.
Now, tell me the truth. Did you know that not taking revenge is a biblical commandment? In some cultures in Africa, revenge is a mitzvah! I’ve heard radio talk-show hosts invite listeners to share how they took “sweet revenge” on someone, as if it’s some kind of accomplishment.
Furthermore, did you know that bearing a grudge is forbidden by biblical law?
Here in South Africa, people refer to a grudge by its Yiddish name, a faribel. In other countries, people call it a broiges. Whatever the terminology, the Torah states explicitly: “Thou shalt not bear a grudge!” Do not keep a faribel, a broiges or resentment of any kind toward someone you believe wronged you. Talk to that person. Share your feelings honestly. If you do it respectfully and do not demean the other’s dignity, then it can be resolved. Only then will you be able to love your fellow as yourself.
May all our grudges and feelings of resentment toward others be dealt with honestly and respectfully. May all our grudges be resolved as soon as possible. Then we will all be in a much better position to love our neighbors as ourselves.
The post Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself. Really? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘Nonsense’: Huckabee Shoots Down Report Trump to Endorse Palestinian Statehood
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee looks on during the day he visits the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Saturday dismissed as nonsensical the report that President Donald Trump would endorse Palestinian statehood during his tour to the Persian Gulf this week.
“This report is nonsense,” Huckabee harrumphed on his X account, blasting the Jerusalem Post as needing better sourced reporting. “Israel doesn’t have a better friend than the president of the United States.”
Trump is set to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. The leader’s first trip overseas since he took office comes as Trump seeks the Gulf countries’ support in regional conflicts, including the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and curbing Iran’s advancing nuclear program.
However, reports citing administration insiders claimed that Trump has also set his sights on the ambitious goal of expanding the Abraham Accords. These agreements, initially signed in 2020, normalized relations between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan. The accords are widely held to be among the most important achievements of the first Trump administration.
The post ‘Nonsense’: Huckabee Shoots Down Report Trump to Endorse Palestinian Statehood first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US to Put Military Option Back on Table If No Immediate Progress in Iran Talks
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy-designate Steve Witkoff gives a speech at the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on the inauguration day of Trump’s second presidential term, in Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
i24 News – Unless significant progress is registered in Sunday’s round of nuclear talks with Iran, the US will consider putting the military option back on the table, sources close to US envoy Steve Witkoff told i24NEWS.
American and Iranian representatives voiced optimism after the previous talks that took place in Oman and Rome, saying there was a friendly atmosphere despite the two countries’ decades of enmity.
However the two sides are not believed to have thrashed out the all-important technical details, and basic questions remain.
The source has also underscored the significance of the administration’s choice of Michael Anton, the State Department’s policy planning director, as the lead representative in the nuclear talks’ technical phases.
Anton is “an Iran expert and someone who knows how to cut a deal with Iran,” the source said, saying that the choice reflected Trump’s desire to secure the deal.
The post US to Put Military Option Back on Table If No Immediate Progress in Iran Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.