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Goldstone committee head denies bias The chairman of the UN committee responsible for following up on the findings of the Goldstone Report on Operation Cast Lead acknowledged on Saturday that he had helped prepare an advisory opinion analyzing legal aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian issue in the 1990s, but said he could not recall whether he had done this work on behalf of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. |
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New Revelations About the UN Goldstone Report Col. (ret.) Desmond Travers was one of the four members of the UN Fact Finding Mission that produced what is widely called the Goldstone Report. The Mission investigated Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip between December 27, 2008 and January 18, 2009. Travers joined the Irish Defense Forces in 1961 and retired after forty years. As the only former officer who belonged to Justice Richard Goldstone’s team, he was the senior figure responsible for the military analysis that provided the basis for condemning Israel for war crimes. |
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Hamas’ Line of Defence to Goldstone Report Israel has recently delivered its official response to the UN’s fact finding mission to Operation Cast Lead. Hamas’ government is also preparing to submit its official response to the UN Secretary-General before the grace period of six months set to the parties by the Goldstone committee is over. In sharp contrast to the genuine fears expressed by Israel, Hamas does not seem to feel any threat in the legal arena. On the contrary, Hamas demonstrates self confidence based on the understanding that the Goldstone committee strived only to incriminate Israel and all other limited references to the other side were just for lip service without any legal significance. |
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The Case Against the Goldstone Report The Goldstone Report is much more scurrilous than most of its detractors believe. According to the report, Israel used the more than 8,000 rocket attacks on its civilians merely as a pretext, an excuse to target innocent Palestinian civilians for death, as decided upon by the highest levels of the Israeli government. The report found these serious charges “to be firmly based in fact” and had “no doubt” of their truth. |
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Israel Poised to Challenge a U.N. Report on Gaza The Israeli military is completing a rebuttal to a UN report accusing it of grave violations of international and humanitarian law in Gaza a year ago. Maj. Gen. Avichai Mandelblit, the Israeli military advocate general, said in an interview that the assertions of the Goldstone report went beyond anything of which others had accused Israel. “I have read every report, from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Arab League,” he said. “We ourselves set up investigations into 140 complaints. It is when you read these other reports and complaints that you realize how truly vicious the Goldstone report is. He made it look like we set out to go after the economic infrastructure and civilians, that it was intentional. It’s a vicious lie.” |
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To Conform to “International Standards” of Law, Israel Would Have to Lower Its Standards Judge Goldstone says our investigations should be conducted in conformity with “international standards.” We shouldn’t have a problem with this, since it means, in effect, that we can drop our standards. Israel probably has the highest level of accountability of the military under the law in the world. The IDF is required to investigate every complaint into misconduct by its troops, from the severe to the trivial. The IDF will also launch investigations even when no complaint has been filed, such as when alleged misconduct is brought to light in the media. Furthermore, all decisions by the military and civil authorities in relation to investigations and prosecutions are ultimately reviewable by the highest court in the land, where Palestinian residents of Gaza and the West Bank have standing. |
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Dershowitz slams Goldstone for ‘spreading lies’ American lawyer levels sharp criticism at author of report for refusing to debate him, sees it as absurd that Barak is under threat of being arrested while Mashaal roams London free of concern |
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What happened at mosque? The Goldstone report accuses Israel of an air strike on the Maqadmah mosque in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza on January 3, 2009, which caused the deaths of “at least 15 Palestinians.” |
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Carter, Goldstone and Gaza On Nov. 6, Jimmy Carter published an op-ed in the International Herald Tribune endorsing Goldstone’s report. CAMERA has requested corrections of five factual errors in his essay. Carter wrote that Gaza is “surrounded by an impenetrable wall.” In fact, most of the barrier along Gaza’s land border is a fence, not a wall. The Gaza-Egypt border is separated by a wall. Carter claimed “almost 40,000 homes” were destroyed during the fighting. Al Mazen Center for Human Rights, an anti-Israel Palestinian NGO, recently issued a report stating 2,632 homes were destroyed beyond repair and 8,522 were damaged and were repairable. Carter speaks of “several hundred thousand homeless people.” AP reported on Nov. 9, 2009: “The UN estimates around 20,000 Gaza residents were made homeless.” Carter writes: “The Goldstone committee examined closely the cause of deaths of 1,387 Palestinians who perished.” In fact, the report does not closely examine the causes of death for Palestinian individuals. Finally, Carter writes of the “destruction of hospitals.” International and Palestinian sources confirm that while there were damaged hospitals in Gaza, none were destroyed. |
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The Goldstone Illusion To create standards of morality in war that leave a state without the means of legitimate self-protection is politically foolish and morally problematic; but real answers to these real problems cannot be found in the Goldstone report. What methods can Israel legitimately apply in the defense of its citizens when more lethal and accurate missiles strike the center of Tel Aviv, causing hundreds of civilian deaths? |
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Why Are the Laws of War Applied Only to Israel? Former Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler believes that the current laws of war are sufficient, but what really needs to be changed is their selective application to Israel alone. Instead of trying to change the laws of war, Israel and its friends should work to change the principles and procedures of the UN itself, which displays a constant country-specific indictment of Israel. |
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Letter to Richard Goldstone Already your Report has had enormous global repercussions, including some that you probably did not intend. Aside from the general anguish that your accusations of “war crimes” have caused in Israel and among the Jewish people, and the anger and hatred that it is has fueled among their enemies, specific identifiable consequences of your Report already include: the lastminute cancellation of NATO joint military exercises among Israel, Turkey, the United States and Italy (and consequent waste of millions of dollars and downgrading of Israeli-Turkish relations); the degradation of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority; the |
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Brandeis to host Gaza violence forum Brandeis University said yesterday that it will host a forum next month with South African Judge Richard Goldstone, the author of a fiercely controversial United Nations fact-finding report that accused Israeli forces as well as Palestinian fighters of committing war crimes in Gaza. In what is sure to be a heated debate, Goldstone will discuss his report for the first time with a senior Israeli political figure. Dore Gold, former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, will respond to Goldstone in the forum and then both will take questions from the audience. |
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Goldstone report undermines faith in international law There are many tragedies in Gaza that deserve proper investigation, including death and destruction on both sides. But the biggest tragedy of the Goldstone report is the damage done to international law. Goldstone, a renowned jurist, has wasted his reputation on a deeply flawed and biased report. It will undermine faith in the rule of international law for any who, apparently unlike the members of the UNHRC, actually take the time to read it |
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No wonder Hamas isn’t scared Hamas leaders and spokesmen have embraced the Goldstone report. |
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