Kothari is an investigator on the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC)'s "Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel," which has given an open-ended mandate to investigate the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Kothari was discussing opposition to the commission's mandate in his July 25 interview with the website Mondoweiss when he said: "We [the COI on Israel] are very disheartened by the social media that is controlled largely by the Jewish lobby or specific NGOs."
"I would go as far as to raise the question [as to] why they [are] even a member of the United Nations," he said during the interview about Israel.
Kothari was swiftly condemned for his remarks by Jewish organizations such as the Simon Wiesenthal Center and B'nai Brith International, as well as officials representing Israel, the United States, Britain, France, Sweden and Germany at the United Nations.
the pressure made him to apologize for his comment in a letter addressed to UN Human Rights Council President Frederico Villegas.