In 2009, Richard Goldstone led a fact-finding mission created by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate international human rights and humanitarian law violations related to the Gaza War. The mission's findings that Israel and Hamas had both committed serious violations of the laws of war led to a major controversy. You can find the whole report here on the UN site.
Today, it appears that Mr Goldstone is tempering that initial report. Last Friday, April 1, the Washington Post published an op/ed with Mr Goldstone's byline:
Reconsidering the Goldstone Report on Israel and war crimes
By Richard Goldstone, Friday, April 1, 2011
We know a lot more today about what happened in the Gaza war of 2008-09 than we did when I chaired the fact-finding mission appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council that produced what has come to be known as the Goldstone Report. If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document...."
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu responded, and the Israel National News has this:
Netanyahu Responds
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has called on the United Nations to cancel the Goldstone Report on Operation Cast Lead following an op-ed piece written by the author of the report, retired South African Judge Richard Goldstone.
“Everything we said was proven to be true,” said Netanyahu. “Israel did not willfully harm civilians. Israel's investigating institutions are trustworthy, while Hamas investigated nothing.
“The fact that Goldstone withdrew his conclusions must lead to the cancellation of the report once and for all. We expect this farce to be rectified immediately."
Defense Minister Ehud Barak added that in order to repair the damage done by the report, the judge should present his current conclusions to all the international bodies to whom he presented the original report – and not merely give his opinion in an op-ed piece.
The IDF is “a moral army that operated according to international law,” Barak said.
More from israel National News here, and for more background and links go to Assoluta Tranquillita here.
Stumble It!
