A panel of experts created by Congress to defend religious freedom is being accused of whitewashing Israeli discrimination against Christians and other religious minorities.

In an unprecedented public dissent against the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), the only Middle East Christian on the panel is accusing the panel of a "continuing and glaring refusal" to hold Israel to account since the commission's founding in 1998. Arab-American activist Jim Zogby, a 2013 Barack Obama nominee whose term is up this year, argues in a scathing dissent to the annual USCIRF report that will be released April 26 that the panel is betraying its original mission and harming its reputation.

"Because I value the mission, I could not leave without stating publicly my concerns with how this commission has operated," Zogby told Al-Monitor. "I believe that we have not interpreted the mission correctly, and therefore we've not made a difference."

In his dissent, Zogby argues that the panel should focus its energy on advising the US State Department rather than creating "duplicative" reports of problematic countries. But he reserves most of his recrimination for the panel's reluctance over the years to take actions that could be seen as hostile to Israel.