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UN COMMISSIONER SAYS TRUMP’S GAZA PLAN BREACHES INTERNATIONAL LAW
 
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Sondos Asem
October 7, 2025
Middle East Eye
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_ Navi Pillay, the chair of the UN inquiry that found Israel
responsible for genocide, says her findings will still stand even if a
ceasefire is reached _

South African judge and UN commission of inquiry chief Navi Pillay
speaks during a press conference in Geneva on 16 September 2025, AFP

 

UN Commissioner Navi Pillay has criticised ​​​​​​US
[[link removed]] President Donald Trump's
20-point
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plan for its exclusion of Palestinians from transitional governance,
and said a ceasefire proposal does not alter the UN's finding that
Israel [[link removed]] is responsible
for genocide
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Last week, Trump unveiled the controversial "peace" plan alongside
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which gives general
precedence to Israel's framing of the situation in Gaza and Israel's
stated security concerns.

The plan, which has been widely criticised as "colonial thinking
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proposes that Trump will serve alongside former British Prime Minister
Tony Blair
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on a transitional committee that will oversee the strip.

In a wide-ranging interview with Middle East Eye on Monday, Pillay,
an eminent South African judge who chairs the UN commission of inquiry
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concluded Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza, said that "the
conclusion of the commission still stands."

"Israel has committed genocide and is continuing to do so," she
told the Expert Witness podcast.

"Just because there's a call for a ceasefire now it doesn't mean that
the finding of genocide is going to go away."

Pillay, 84, is one of the most influential figures in international
criminal justice and human rights law, and is South Africa’s most
prominent international judge. 

In 1995, she was nominated by President Nelson Mandela to serve on the
UN's International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), where she
served as a judge and president (1999-2003). Pillay's work at the ICTR
produced the first genocide convictions in history. 

She was also one of the founding judges of the International Criminal
Court, and currently serves as an ad hoc judge at the International
Court of Justice (ICJ).

Pillay said Trump's plan manifestly breaches the advisory opinion of
the ICJ
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issued on 19 July 2024, which held that Israel's occupation of Gaza
and the West Bank is unlawful and must end unconditionally. 

Pillay also noted that Israel has failed to comply with the UN General
Assembly Resolution [[link removed]] of 18
September 2024, which requested Israel to uphold the ICJ judgment
within one year. 

"This plan goes directly against the declaration of the International
Court of Justice," she said.

Furthermore, she denounced the plan for excluding Palestinians from
leading the transitional phase.

"The main thing is that Palestinians are not part of this. They not
only should be part, they should be the controlling feature because
they are able to govern themselves."

Restricting sovereignty

Since the plan was announced, the Israeli army has continued its
onslaught on Gaza, killing more than a hundred people.

The Israeli army has killed over 67,000 Palestinians within two years
- almost half of them are women and children - destroyed most of the
enclave's homes and infrastructure, and displaced almost the entire
2.2 million population. 

"The plan allows Israel to maintain significant security control over
Gaza, and this would restrict Gaza's independence and ultimately the
sovereignty of the Palestinian people," she told MEE.

"This plan must involve the Palestinian people. There is no other way,
and there should not be another way," said Pillay.

A group of 36 UN experts
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last week also criticised Trump’s plan for failing to ensure an end
to the occupation and to uphold the Palestinian right to
self-determination enshrined in international law.

Pillay's commission, which includes Australia's former Human Rights
Commissioner Chris Sidoti and former UN Special Rapporteur Miloon
Kothari, concluded on 16 September that Israel has committed four of
the five proscribed acts under the 1948 Genocide Convention, and that
Israeli leaders had the intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a
group. 

The finding echoed reports by Palestinian, Israeli and international
rights groups that have reached the same conclusion over the past two
years. 

But the report is the most authoritative legal opinion by a UN body to
date. The commission conducted its own investigation and adopted a
methodology similar to that used by the ICJ, which is currently
hearing a case by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide. 

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Middle East Eye delivers independent and unrivalled coverage and
analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. To learn more
about republishing this content and the associated fees, please fill
out this form [[link removed]]. More
about MEE can be found here
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* Trump's Gaza Plan; UN Commissioner Pillay; UN Commission of
Inquiry;
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