WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) released the following statement Monday in response to the second report from the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the human rights implications of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the first to be submitted to the UN General Assembly: 

“This report from the Commission of Inquiry is as unsurprising as it is distorted and incomplete,” said the senators. “The COI once again attacks Israel, while ignoring the continuing violence committed by Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups. Sadly, this one-sided reporting from the COI was entirely predictable, as members of the commission have a history of anti-Israel statements. We continue to call for the dissolution of this ill-considered commission so that the UN’s Human Rights Council can focus on the many situations around the world that warrant examination in an even-handed way.”

In March of this year, the Senators led a group of 68 of their colleagues in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging him to prioritize ending the COI. As they said in that letter,

“By unfairly singling out Israel, the UNHRC undermines its credibility to investigate human rights violations around the world.”

“The COI is the latest endeavor by UNHRC to discredit the only Jewish state and is likely to further fuel antisemitism worldwide.”