UN Report Accusing Israel of Genocide and Sexual Violence Slammed as Anti-Semitic Blood Libel

Edited by: Fern Sidman

A newly published report by the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI) has ignited a firestorm of controversy, accusing Israel of committing “genocidal acts” and employing sexual violence as a weapon of war during its military operations in Gaza. The allegations, outlined in a 2024 report and extensively detailed by Algemeiner.com, have been met with outrage in Israel and hailed by Hamas—revealing a deepening chasm between the UN’s human rights mechanisms and Israel’s global standing.

According to the information provided at Algemeiner.com on Thursday, the report includes extraordinary claims that Israel has engaged in actions intended to “destroy in part the reproductive capacity of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group,” citing measures allegedly intended to prevent births—a charge the report equates with one of the categories of genocide under the Rome Statute and the Genocide Convention.

Israeli leaders and legal experts have condemned the findings as a politically motivated and anti-Semitic fabrication, dismissing the report as lacking both credibility and evidentiary rigor. Hamas, in contrast, welcomed the report, asserting it validates its own claims of Israeli “genocide” and systematic violations of international law.

The UN commission accused Israeli security forces of using forced public stripping and sexual assault as punitive measures during the conflict. As Algemeiner.com reported, these accusations were largely based on testimonies from Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, including accounts that civilians were publicly stripped without gender segregation.

Israel’s permanent mission to the United Nations in Geneva categorically rejected the report, calling the findings unsubstantiated and fundamentally flawed. In a formal statement reported by Algemeiner.com, the mission said: “In a shameless attempt to incriminate the IDF and manufacture the illusion of ‘systematic’ use of [sexual and gender-based violence], the [Commission of Inquiry] deliberately adopts a lower level of corroboration in its report, which allowed it to include information from second-hand single uncorroborated sources.”

Israeli officials have also criticized the commission for blatant double standards, noting that the COI applies far stricter evidentiary thresholds when evaluating atrocities committed by Hamas—including those on October 7, during the brutal massacre and terror assault on Israeli civilians.

Critics of the UN’s commission point to the ideological leanings and controversial backgrounds of its three members, as highlighted in the Algemeiner.com report. These include Navi Pillay, the commission chair, previously associated with the discredited Goldstone Report and the Durban II conference—widely condemned for equating Zionism with racism, Miloon Kothari, a UN Special Rapporteur who questioned the legitimacy of Israel’s UN membership and referenced the influence of the “Jewish lobby” and Chris Sidoti, who once dismissed accusations of anti-Semitism as being “thrown around like rice at a wedding.”

During an interview with Algemeiner.com, Anne Herzberg, Legal Advisor and UN Representative for NGO Monitor said, “All of the people on that commission have expressed hostile and prejudicial views to Israel, even prior to serving on the commission.” Herzberg also emphasized the lack of transparency in how the commission operates, noting that staffing is concealed, and there is no visibility into how evidence is gathered or vetted. “The COI has no credibility,” she told Algemeiner.com. “It is a main vector of atrocity denial and inversion.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a scathing rebuke, describing the report and its authors as part of an “anti-Semitic, rotten, terrorist-supporting, and irrelevant body.” In comments reported by Algemeiner.com, Netanyahu emphasized that the UN Human Rights Council, which oversees the COI, has once again focused its ire on Israel while ignoring Hamas’ war crimes.

“Instead of focusing on the crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by the Hamas terrorist organization in the worst massacre committed against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, the UN is once again choosing to attack Israel with false accusations,” Netanyahu stated, calling the sexual violence claims entirely unfounded.

Cochav Elkayam-Levy, who leads the Civil Commission on October 7th Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children, echoed Netanyahu’s concerns. She told Algemeiner.com that the UN report represents a continuation of a false equivalency between Israel and Hamas, particularly regarding sexual violence.

“This moral comparison is painful and wrong because its purpose is to establish false historical narratives and inflicts irreparable harm both on the victims and on justice,” she said.

The implications of the COI’s report are far-reaching. As reported by Algemeiner.com, Herzberg warned that such a document could be exploited by international legal bodies, including the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and International Criminal Court (ICC), as well as by the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement to further isolate and delegitimize Israel on the world stage.

“This report will likely be used to fuel lawfare campaigns against Israel,” she said, expressing hope that the United States would take steps to defund the UN Human Rights Council, especially under a future Trump administration. “It should never have been established in the first place,” Herzberg added.

In stark contrast, the Hamas terror group hailed the UN findings. Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem told AFP, in remarks relayed by Algemeiner.com, that the report confirms Israel’s “genocidal acts” and claimed it vindicates their longstanding accusations. “The UN’s investigation report on Israel’s genocidal acts against the Palestinian people confirms what has happened on the ground: genocide and violations of all humanitarian and legal standards,” Qassem said.

The UN Commission of Inquiry’s report—widely viewed by Israeli officials, legal scholars, and independent observers as a politically driven distortion—may mark another low point in what critics describe as a pattern of institutionalized bias against the Jewish state within the UN framework.

As documented in the Algemeiner.com report, the fallout from this report has not only deepened mistrust between Israel and the UN but also further eroded the legitimacy of international bodies accused of turning a blind eye to terrorism while obsessively targeting the Middle East’s only democracy.

As Herzberg concluded to Algemeiner.com, “What we’re witnessing is the inversion of justice—where perpetrators are exonerated, and victims are vilified. That is the true legacy of this commission.”