Goldstone Attacks UN Resolution On His Gaza War Report

Richard Goldstone, the South African who headed a United Nations investigation into the Gaza war, slammed the UN Human Rights Council's endorsement of his commission's report on Friday, Haaretz reports.

Goldstone reportedly disagreed with the language of the UN resolution, which condemns Israel for its actions in Gaza but fails to criticize Hamas. Goldstone's report attacked the actions of both the Israeli army and Hamas.

Goldstone told the Swiss newspaper Le Temps before the vote that the wording of the resolution was unfortunate because it included only censure of Israel. He voiced hope that the Human Rights Council would alter the wording of the draft.

The Jerusalem Post quotes Goldstone as saying, "There is not a single phrase condemning Hamas as we have done in the report."

Israel also slammed the UN endorsement on Friday, calling it "unjust," Haaretz reports.

"Israel will continue to exercise its right to self defense and to preserve the security of its citizens...Israel believes that the decision harms efforts to protect human rights in accordance with international law and hinders efforts to promote the peace process as well as encouraging terror organizations around the world," according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.

Hamas, meanwhile, called the decision a "victory for the Palestinian victims," the Jerusalem Post reports.

The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip expressed hope that "the vote on the report will serve as the basis for prosecuting Israeli war criminals."

...
Moussa Abu Marzuk, a top Damascus-based Hamas leader thanked the UN Human Rights Council for endorsing the Goldstone report on Operation Cast Lead, and said the resolution adopted on Friday benefits all the Palestinian people.

Read more on the UN's endorsement from the AP:

GENEVA - The U.N. Human Rights Council voted Friday to endorse a report on last winter's Gaza conflict that calls on Israel and authorities in Gaza to carry out credible investigations into alleged abuses -- or face possible referral to international war crimes prosecutors.

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The decision means that Israel could find itself facing a request at the U.N. Security Council to refer the case to prosecutors at the International Criminal Court in The Hague -- whose jurisdiction Israel does not accept.

Although a U.S. veto at the Security Council would be virtually assured, Friday's decision will keep attention on the report, compiled by an expert panel chaired by respected South African jurist Richard Goldstone.

Israel bitterly denounced Friday's decision, with officials arguing that continuing the course of the Goldstone report would embolden terror groups around the world -- with nations reluctant to fight them for fear of facing the same fate as Israel.

The 575-page report concluded that Israel used disproportionate force, deliberately targeted civilians, used Palestinians as human shields and destroyed civilian infrastructure during its Dec. 27-Jan. 18 campaign to root out Palestinian rocket squads.

It also accused Palestinian armed groups including Hamas -- which controls Gaza -- of deliberately targeting civilians and trying to spread terror through rocket attacks on southern Israel. In the years leading up to the conflict Israel absorbed thousands of rocket attacks, which caused only a handful of fatalities but badly disrupted life in the area neighboring Gaza. During the campaign 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.

The report, commissioned earlier this year by the U.N. Human Rights Council, recommends that the 15-member Security Council require both sides in the conflict to show within six months that they are carrying out independent and impartial investigations into alleged abuses. If they are not, the matter should then be referred to prosecutors at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, the report says.

Friday's decision to endorse this approach followed two days of debate. The Palestinian-backed resolution passed 25-6, with mostly developing countries in favor and the United States and five European countries -- Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Slovakia and Ukraine -- opposing.

Eleven mostly European and African countries abstained, while Britain, France and three other members of the 47-nation body declined to vote. Russia and China, two permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, were among those voting yes.

"The clock on the report starts now," said Ibrahim Khraishi, the Palestinian Authority's U.N. ambassador in Geneva.

In order to be adopted, a U.N. Security Council resolution must get nine yes votes, and no veto by a permanent member. The U.S. is likely to use its veto to block any call to get the International Criminal Court involved in the dispute or to take action against Israel.

Officials from the Palestinian Authority visited the International Criminal Court on Friday to present legal arguments in favor of giving the court legal authority over territory it controls -- something only sovereign nations are allowed to do. The Palestinian Authority is technically an autonomous entity, not a state.

Palestinians hope that, if the court accepts its request, court prosecutor Moreno Ocampo would then have jurisdiction to launch an investigation into war crimes committed by both sides during the Gaza conflict even without an order from the Security Council.

Israel does not accept the court's jurisdiction.

Ocampo had no comment Friday.

In Ramallah, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, welcomed Friday's vote.

"What is important now is to translate words into deeds in order to protect our people in the future from any new aggression," Nabil Abu Rdeneh said.

Israel and the U.S. called the Goldstone report "flawed" because it ignored Israel's right to defend its people from Palestinian rocket fire. They warned that the vote could jeopardize Middle East peace prospects.

Israel's foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, also said endorsing the report could have far-reaching consequences.

"Whoever votes in favor of endorsing the report must understand that next time it will be the soldiers and officers of NATO in Afghanistan, and then Russian soldiers and officers in Chechnya," Lieberman said late Thursday.

Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said the resolution "provides encouragement for terrorist organizations worldwide and undermines global peace."

U.S. diplomat Douglas M. Griffiths told the council that Washington was disappointed with the outcome of the vote.

"We're focused on moving forward in the peace process and we feel that this is a distraction from that," Griffiths told The Associated Press.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, urged both sides earlier this week "to carry out impartial, independent, prompt and effective investigations into reported violations of human rights and humanitarian law."

___

Associated Press Writer Mike Corder in The Hague, Aron Heller in Jerusalem and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

Comments

[mommamia526]

The issue is NOT who is a jew, and who is not. Nor is it who should investigate whom. There are institutions where criminal activities are being judged, and such institutions and its judges must be impartial. The PA is not impartial, Hamas is not impartial, even Israel is not impartial. Religion is not an acceptable reason or excuse, nor is the poverty of a group of persons. Criminality is for example kidnapping a person and holding him for ransom. No doubt about it. It is not defense, it is not war, it is criminality. Strapping on bombbelts and attacking innocent civilians is criminality, so is randomly shooting off of Qassams into a civilian population of a neighboring nation. If you do such acts and for more than 2 years, at least, and you are warned, over and over, you are aksing for it and you get it. Criminal neglect of Hamas is incitement and not safeguarding its Gaza population with bombshelters, nor evacuating buildings which were known to be targets, because they were warned. After all, they do have the means to build literally thousands of underground tunnels for smuggling of contraband and food, that implies that they also can build bombshelters. They do not care about Palestinians, just about themselves. Much of the leadership is Syrian.

[rissole]

While everyone is talking things are getting worse by the day for the people of Gaza. Now we want to visit the same death and destruction on Iran. May God help us.

[BubbaC33]

The situation inside Gaza is the fault and responsibility of Hamas. When it decides to stop working for the destruction of Isrtael and stops attacking us maybe the situation will improve.

[LincolnParkChicago]

“In an interview with Newsweek, Shimon Peres, Israel's Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Labour Party, explains it in this way: "We are disengaging from Gaza because of demography." He is referring to Israel's determination to maintain a Jewish majority in the Jewish state.
“Removing 1.3 million Arabs in the Gaza Strip from official Israeli control, while keeping them detained in the world's largest open-air prison, is a ploy to achieve the "right" ethnic balance. "
"Israel-proper already has over 1.4 million non-Jewish Arab citizens within its borders. There are more than 3.7 million non-Jews in the occupied territories. These populations have higher birth rates than Israeli Jews, of which there are 5.4 million. Israel's Jewish majority would likely disappear if Israel accepted all these people as citizens. "
"And this is not to mention more than 5 million Palestinian refugees outside Israel and the occupied territories - the people driven from Palestine in the ethnic cleansing that established Israel in 1947 and their descendants.”

[mommamia526]

No, rissole, WE do not. WE want Iran to enter into discussions and to abide with resolutions already made. This is the case because Iran has threatened, and continues to threaten, both the U.S. and Israel, and because of its internal regime which has provided us the last year with further insight what it is about.

[blutigeroo]

The Goldstone report focuses mainly on a few weeks in December/January, and says little about the 40 or so years of Israel becoming the oppressors and the abuses that occurred in the occupied territories including in Lebanon. Israel has successfully headed off other investigations, not this time hopefully. Obama has promized even-handedness and Susan Rice should not continue the U.S. hypocrisy of protecting Israel on its longstanding violations of international law.

[Fractal122635]

I know you must be kidding because most don't print fiction here.

[LincolnParkChicago]

Blu is correct.

[LincolnParkChicago]

Correct.

[BubbaC33]

It is always amusing to read some posting accusing Israel of violating international law without stating the how. The reason is, I suspect, because Israel has not violated international law.

[clevomon]

That wasn't their job. Their job was to investigate those weeks. The resolution was a condemnation of Israel's actions during those weeks. The wording should still be changed. I'm not even going to engage you on the 40 years thing because we could go back and forth on that forever.

[harold1965]

Who says Israel is not guilty. They acted like that kid with a magnifying glass burning ants. It is time for Israel to pay for her war crimes.

[BubbaC33]

The problem with your posting is Israel has committed no war crimes, but we have been the victims of invading Arab armies, Arab terrorism, and a propaganda effort to the reverse causality.

[JISantiago]

In the face of overwhelming evidence of Israeli guilt of war crimes, it would be a traversity of justice if the US veto any resolution at the UN Security Council recommending the guilty party to be tried at The Hague. It would also raise a big question mark on the credibility of the United States as a honest broker in the Middle East peace initiative.

The world calls upon President Obama to do the right thing: Let the course of justice proceed without any impediment. Don't use your veto power to justify a criminal act.

Israel's bitter denouncement of the UN Human Rights Council's decision is totally without merit and tantamounts to an act of contempt.

And, to argue that "to continue the course of the Goldstone report would embolden terror groups around the world" is so laughable, to say the least. On the contrary, if Israel is allowed to get away with this atrocity, it would further embolden terror groups to take matters into their own hands and seek their own form of justice. A civilised world cannot allow that to happen.

[BubbaC33]

There is no evidence of Israeli war crimes because Israel has committed no war crimes. Thje folks who make such statements generally know little of international law and even less of the situation in the Middle East.

[stpmdn]

lets see 1400 palastiniens and only 13 israeli died. Yes the palastiniens should have been slammed also.

[greatscot]

Finally! Some movement against Israeli war criminals! It's about time. Hamas has an absolute right to use force to liberate its occupied territory, just as did the Soviet, French and Jugoslav resistance during WWII. The firing of rockets into civilian areas is also a criminal act, but, was stopped by Hamas for years, until Israel broke the truce which had been holding. It appears that Israel wanted the rockets to start up again (they are almost completely ineffective and mostly do only physical damage), so that they could hammer Gaza completely, before George W. Bush left office, and thus with complete impunity.

Well, it looks like their impunity is ending. The U.N. is moving forward without the United States on board. This should not be too surprising. The reportage of the Gaza attack is vastly more graphic and honest overseas, than the pabulum (strained and devoid of all context) we get here in the United States, so the anger and desire to punish the Israelis is vastly more palpable. It's going to get interesting!

[Fractal122635]

Besides the fact that neither Gaza or the misnamed "West Bank" were ever Palestinian and so could not have been "taken" from them or "occupied" against them (perhaps you've forgotten Gaza was Egyptian and when offered back they wanted no part of it) Israel has been out of Gaza completely since 2005 so why exactly did the rocket attacks ESCALATE after they left.

It's about time you, and the others who write this claptrap wake up.

It's simple. If the Palestinians put down their arms and recongnized Israel, they would have their nation TOMORROW. Until then, they will not.

[Fein]

"It's simple. If the Palestinians put down their arms and recongnized Israel, they would have their nation TOMORROW. Until then, they will not."

That's Israeli propaganda myth number one. The REAL reason Israel needs the Palestinians to 'recognize' it is, that such a declaration would invalidate any Palestinian claims for compensation for the stolen land as per UN resolution 192. Of course, that can never happen.

And BTW, there's no int'l law or legal basis that requires one nation to 'recognize' another. So Israel has no legal basis for that demand. It is a carefully engineered propaganda ploy that's only effective if you're misinformed. (That's why you only hear Republicans and Israeli Firsters parroting it!)

[LincolnParkChicago]

Gaza is a cynical manipulation to remove a million non Jewish persons from israel for the purpose of ensuring a Jewish majority. Nothing more. It is an open air prison.

[baffy]

Go back and look at the 1948 borders which Israel accepted. Also, look at the terms they agreed to. You will find that from day one all of these terms have been violated. Every Israeli Prime Minister from Ben Gurion on has stated publicly his or her intention to expand Israel's borders, fully recognizing that, in order to do so, the Palestinians would have to be removed. What Israel has been doing since 1967 is no different than what it was doing 20 years before. The only change is the brazen brutality against the Palestinian people.

[alysheba 3]

Is that why the Jewish Zionist terrorists who used violence to form Israel are quoted all over the internet talking about driving Arabs and Christians out of Palestine to form Israel?

[Hedonist]

You falsely claim Hamas stopped firing rockets into Israel for YEARS? That is utter a complete nonsense. There was at most a few months of relatively fewer rockets fired prior to operation Cast Lead. At no time prior to December 2008 did a month go by without the missiles flying. In fact, between April 2001 and the end of 2008, 4,246 rockets and 4,180 mortar shells were fired into Israel from Gaza. No country on earth would tolerate this from a neighboring entity.

[LincolnParkChicago]

The Gaza incursion was a ploy to raise the poll numbers of Levi and Barak. Raising their poll numbers was the reason they attacked Gaza. Period. Arguing that it was to defend israeli citizens is a rationalization to deflect criticism.

[BubbaC33]

The UN is hardly relevant to the situation in the Middle East. There is little the organization has done in the past 20 years to help achieve any of the lofty goals purported to be the mission of the UN. In fact, the UN is one of the biggest obstacles to peace. It issues condemnations of some innocent nations, such as Israel, and overlooks violations by nations such as Somalia or any of the other little, insignificant nations in the world.

[misaacm]

At the UN, one impossible to meet standard for Israel, and no standards for the Arabs.

[thrdr]

Nonsense. The only standard for all is international law, and Israel is and always has been capable of meeting that standard. But Israel regularly violates international law with impunity, backed by the U.S. with little or no reservation, even when presented with overwhelming evidence of criminality.

Goldstone's criticism of the resolution is that it mentions only Israel; this is valid, but the fact is that Hamas and the Palestinian Authority are in no position to even hope to successfully deny criminal acts, which have consistently been on a far smaller scale than criminal acts committed by the IDF, and in fact far less frequent than criminal acts committed by the IDF; the actions of Hamas and the Palestinian authority should be investigated and those responsible brought to justice under international law, but the representation of Israel as a non-aggressive, victimized entity needs to be debunked as a starting point from which Israeli officials in positions of authority can be legitimately investigated and held accountable for their policies and actions toward the Palestinian people.

[alysheba 3]

The Resolution only adresses Israel because the Palestinians have already approached the World Court, asking for an independent investigation. There is no need for the UN to pass a Resolution against Palestinians (Hamas) for not investigating.

[StansDad]

Israel, the greatest excuse for middle eastern officials to ignore the needs of their own people since 1947

[batguano]

America is complicit to the crimes of Israel because we fund the Israeli military and supply them the arms used against civilians from Gaza to Lebanon. The weapons used, white phosphorus, fletchet weapons and cluster bombs are banned for use against civilian populations as Israel obviously did in both Gaza and Lebanon. The intent by Israel was to punish, kill, destroy and maim. American aid funds more than just military attacks; our billions annually fund the continuing occupation, ethnic cleansing and illegal colonization of the West Bank, Israels "separation barrier" that confiscates Palestinian farmland and steals their water, the imprisonment of about 10,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, the destruction of Palestian homes, culture, education, olive groves and, in short, everything Israel does to try to assure there never is a Palestinian state, only a greatly expanded Israel and a fractured Palestinian people. Of all the odious states killing and destroying the people and works of those they seek to destroy, we chose to hitch our honor and integrity to the Israeli right-wing religious extremists -- all in the search for campaign contributions and to keep from being attacked by the Israeli lobby in the US, AIPAC,AEI,JINSA, et al. -- pathetic!


America must end the funding of Israeli theft, destruction, occupation and killing. END ALL US AID TO ISRAEL NOW!

[mommamia526]

End all U.S. aid to any muslim contry now! That includes Saudi Arabia, the PA, and, yes, even Gaza.

[JohnnyLee]

Congratulations Mr. Goldstone you just figured out you were manipulated by the UN's Human Right Council. Boy, you didn't see that one coming?

[clevomon]

As long as now, we can indeed agree that his report was valid.

[JohnnyLee]

China who has the world's most tyrannical regime, North Korea, as a client state and illegally occupies Tibet while routinely calling the his holiness the Dalai Lama a fraud endorsed the investigation. What a joke!

[duxguts]

You failed to mention Gitmo. Was that an oversight?

[EGB]

Is there no one on this planet who recognizes that the conflict in Gaza was abusive on both sides? This was a great opportunity to investigate Israeli actions at the same time as addressing the obviously illegal, long-term targeting of civilians by Hamas' rockets. This resolution is a huge setback to seeking justice. How unfortunate it is. It might have been a good way to focus on the immorality of both parties, but instead it is one more impotent example of counterproductive finger-pointing.

[al343806]

Co-signed.

I recognize Israeli actions as unjust, but Hamas must be made to answer as well. Just so you know that you're not alone in not understanding this craziness...

[BubbaC33]

The craziness is Hamas attacks Israel, uses its own civilians as shields when the IDF responds, and yet Israel is also at fault. There is no logic in that sort of thinking. If anything the IDF was too restrained during the incursion into Gaza.

[thrdr]

Not true. You are attempting to balance the scales artificially. But, agree with the tactics and political rhetoric of Hamas and other militarist Palestinian groups or not (and I do not), the facts break in "favor" of the Palestinian people.

Israel has not just recently in Gaza but throughout its history killed far more Palestinian civilians than Hamas or any other Palestinian group has killed Israeli civilians. Israel has stollen land, water, and resources from the Palestinian people repeatedly; they have destroyed farms, orchards, homes, essential infra-structure such as power plants and sewage facilities; they have maintained a long seige upon Gaza; harassment of all sorts is meted out upon Palestinian civilians by IDF forces and by Israeli settlers on a daily basis.

Say that it is abusive on both sides, yes, but not equally.

[EGB]

Does the word "equally" appear in my post? I think, in regard to lethal military actions, that the terms "equal" and "unequal" are useless. Who is to say that one group's targeting of civilians is more just than another's? Targeting civilians is wrong. In conflicts where both sides are doing it, anything other than recognizing the immorality of both sides' actions is inimical to finding a peaceful resolution because it is a false premise upon which to build anything except war. It simply adds fuel to the fire by appearing to take the side of one party. If you are arguing that peppering Israeli towns with rockets is OK because the occupation is oppressive, I wonder what your approach to making peace might be, or whether you have one. Justifying violence is exactly what Hamas and Israel do all the time. Do you see any benefits to that kind of thinking?

[alysheba 3]

"Officials from the Palestinian Authority visited the International Criminal Court on Friday to present legal arguments in favor of giving the court legal authority over territory it controls -- something only sovereign nations are allowed to do. The Palestinian Authority is technically an autonomous entity, not a state.

Palestinians hope that, if the court accepts its request, court prosecutor Moreno Ocampo would then have jurisdiction to launch an investigation into war crimes committed by both sides during the Gaza conflict even without an order from the Security Council."

In other words the Palestinians welcome an independent investigation done by someone outside the conflict. What is Israel trying to hide?

[mommamia526]

Peres has equally endorsed independent investigation by the International Court and well before Abbas came up with the thought.

[mommamia526]

Alysheba, as you state, The PA has no legal standing to bring such a request before the International Court. Neither would Hamas have such a legal standing. That is also the reason Hamas can not investigate itself. The UNHRC is a skewed group of nations which have no legal standing to make judgements in criminal cases either. Israel has no reason to investigate itself, but if an investigation is necessary the IC is the place to do it.

[clevomon]

Thank you! My thoughts exactly!

[Dailykook]

Goldstone report is totally biased against Israel, as with previous UN "human rights" resolutions.
Its basically saying to Hamas and Hezzbolah that you can murder jews at will but God forbid Israel retaliates and defends itself.

[Thabit]

Oh Yes , Goldstone , a Pro Israel zionist wrote a report biased against israel? WoW , wonder what a truely neutral observer would have written.

[Dailykook]

"pro Israel zionist" haha good one. I suppose Arafat was zionist to you too.

[Dailykook]

Go Israel...Israel USA forever together.

[BubbaC33]

The idea that Goldstone is a zionist is laughable. It is also wrong. Not all Jews are zionists. Not all Jews are anything, we are a diverse group.

[mommamia526]

Goldstone wrote a report blaming BOTH Israel AND HAMAS!!! It is the UNHRC which came to a biased conclusion, as it has a habit of doing. No jewish zionists in the UNHRC, dear, only muslims.

[digdeeper]

The one thing politicians lack is humility which is seen by them as a weakness.
Obviously the bombardment of Gaza by the Israelis was excessive and contravened International rules of engagement. Innocent women and children were injured and killed and the weapons used caused severe burning and disfigurement.
In the face of overwhelming evidence, Countries are dithering around and trying desperately to "fudge" the issue.
What a bunch of hypocrits they all are. Quite unable to make a stand against the current ultra right wing Israeli Government.

[toltec998]

I agree. Thier inability to show humility reflects weakness. It takes a strong person to work through crucial problems with enough humility to come to a resolution that isn't one-sided. Anyone can drob a bomb to resolve an issues. Isn't that called terror?

[BubbaC33]

Terrorism is the tool Hamas has used against Israel and against the people of Gaza. It is amazing how some folks are so willing to overlook any misdeeds by Hamas while using a microscope to try to find something Israel has done wrong.