Critics have assailed the United Nations for allocating funds to a contentious anti-Israel Commission of Inquiry, providing it with four new positions estimated to be worth up to $750,000, even as the global organization navigates a significant financial downturn.

“When it comes to spending, the U.N. appears to have no budgetary ceiling,” Anne Bayefsky, director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and president of Human Rights Voices, informed Digital.

On June 4, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Palestinian Territory, Including East Jerusalem (COI), led by South African Navi Pillay, announced openings for four new senior-level roles in Geneva. These roles include two P-2 level associate interpreters, one higher-level P-3 human rights officer, and a still more senior P-4 human rights officer.

Collectively, their salaries are projected to range from $530,000 to $704,000, based on U.N. salary scales and its location-specific salary multiplier (set at 0.814 for Swiss employees), as detailed in a document provided to Digital by a diplomatic source.

These salary figures do not encompass other benefits for senior U.N. employees, such as dependent allowances, housing stipends, or relocation expenses.

Bayefsky questioned why the U.N.’s “fiscal austerity measures… apply to various urgent matters but exclude the COI, which has simultaneously embarked on a spending spree.”

“The COI was established to dismantle the Jewish state and is now conducting itself accordingly.” She characterized its most recent report, released in June, as “completely irrational” and one that “claims Israelis are akin to Nazis engaged in the ‘extermination’ of Palestinians, refers to ‘extremist Jews,’ refutes biblical history, and incites antisemitism by alleging Jews desecrate Muslim sacred sites.”

A representative from the U.N. Human Rights Office did not respond to Digital’s inquiries regarding the Commission’s conclusions.

Pillay and the COI have previously faced censure for their anti-Israel stance. In January 2022, 42 Republican and Democratic members of Congress co-signed an open letter urging the U.S. to discontinue funding for the COI. The representatives voiced apprehension that “Chairwoman Navi Pillay, during her tenure as U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014, repeatedly and unfairly accused Israel of perpetrating war crimes.” They noted that while she condemned Israel, Pillay “reportedly made no statements whatsoever regarding grave human rights abuses in dozens of other nations which, unlike Israel, received the lowest, ‘Not Free’ rating from the reputable Freedom House.”

In October 2023, a delegate from the U.S. Mission to the U.N. in Geneva stated before the U.N.’s Third Committee that the U.S. “remains profoundly concerned about the scope and character of the open-ended Commission of Inquiry founded in May 2021. The COI exhibits a particular prejudice against Israel by subjecting it to a distinct mechanism that is not applied to any other U.N. Member State.”

In October 2024, a report from the COI neglected to include information about Hamas’s use of Kamal Adwan Hospital for operations, failed to detail the mistreatment Israeli hostages endured at Gazan hospitals, and could “not confirm” that tunnels discovered beneath Al-Shifa hospital “were utilized for military purposes.” Bayefsky declared that the report dealt in false accusations resembling blood libels.

In March, Pillay’s commission asserted that rape and sexual violence constitute part of the Israel Defense Force’s “standard operational procedures concerning Palestinians.” Pillay also contended that the IDF’s sexual violence generates “a system of subjugation that undermines [Palestinians’] right to self-determination.” In response, Bayefsky dubbed Pillay “the world’s foremost proponent of the 2001 U.N. ‘Durban Declaration’ libel that a Jewish state is a racist state.”

In March 2024, Congress passed a budget bill that eliminated funding for the COI while also addressing the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), according to the Jerusalem Post.

The U.N. Human Rights Council is already experiencing the repercussions of the organization’s financial crunch.

In a letter dated June 16, authored by U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, the Human Rights Council detailed over a dozen reports, as well as studies, regional workshops, and panels mandated by the Council, which could not be finished due to insufficient resources.

In response to an inquiry about why the COI received additional personnel while the Human Rights Council grapples with scarcity, spokesperson Pascal Sim informed Digital that the Human Rights Council’s “positions are solely conveyed through the resolutions and decisions that its 47 Member States approve at the conclusion of each of its sessions.”

Addressing the question of whether the council is in greater need of staff or finances to handle its existing workload, Sim stated that “U.N. Member States are presently engaged in ongoing discussions on this matter.”

At a press conference on July 1, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Policy Guy Ryder provided reporters with an update on the UN80 Initiative.

Ryder commented that the U.N. acknowledges “that we face a challenging task of untangling the complex web of decisions, resolutions, and the mechanisms we’ve established to implement them, and we question whether we will be able to make substantial progress.”

Ryder also admitted that “When a similar review was conducted two decades ago, it quickly faltered. It did not yield the results that were hoped for and anticipated at that time. We are examining that experience from 20 years ago, and we hope to avoid some of the pitfalls.”

However, Bayefsky asserted, “For decades, the U.N. has engaged in fraudulent cost-cutting measures while its actual expenditures have expanded dramatically,” she said, pointing out that the U.S. “has consistently been appeased by merely rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.”

Bayefsky stated that “it is our government’s duty to halt this deceitful calculation by immediately withholding the entire U.N. budget until these perilous flaws are rectified. It is our duty to deny visas to the COI members intending to visit the United States in the upcoming months.

“Contrary to popular belief, the U.S.-U.N. host agreement does not mandate permitting international travelers into the U.S. to incite antisemitism and undermine our fundamental values and Constitution from the heart of New York City,” Bayefsky declared. “We require a new vessel, not just new seating.”

A budget proposal from the [missing source] declared an intent to eliminate all spending on the U.N. and international organizations.

In response to inquiries about whether a final decision on U.N. funding had been reached, a senior State Department official informed Digital that “President Trump is ensuring taxpayer dollars are utilized prudently. Any announcements regarding financial contributions to international organizations will originate from the President or the administration.”

The U.S., through its taxpayers, represents the largest single contributor to the U.N. In 2022, the U.N. reported that $18.1 billion, or 26.8%, of its total expenditures of $67.5 billion originated from the U.S.