UN Commissioner Says Trump’s Gaza Plan Breaches International Law

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

Sondos Asem Middle East Eye
Printer friendly  
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 President Donald Trump's 20-point Gaza plan for its exclusion of Palestinians from transitional governance, and said a ceasefire proposal does not alter the UN's finding that Israel is responsible for genocide.

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", proposes that Trump will serve alongside former British Prime Minister Tony Blair 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 that 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).

If you like this article, please sign up for Snapshot, Portside's daily summary.

(One summary e-mail a day, you can change anytime, and Portside is always free.)

Pillay said Trump's plan manifestly breaches the advisory opinion of the ICJ, 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 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 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. 

===

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. More about MEE can be found here.