Washington – South African jurist Richard Goldstone said Tuesday that he did not plan to seek nullification of his highly critical U.N. report on Israel’s 2008-2009 offensive in the Gaza Strip and asserted that claims to the contrary by Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai were false.
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The 2009 Goldstone report initially concluded that both Israel and Hamas had committed potential war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during three weeks of fighting. The findings that Israeli forces had intentionally fired at Palestinian civilians triggered outrage in Israel and a personal campaign against Goldstone, who is Jewish.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Goldstone said that Yishai had called him on Monday to thank him for an op-ed piece published Friday in The Washington Post in which the judge wrote that new information had come to light that made him rethink his central conclusions.
Goldstone said, however, that he never discussed the report with Yishai in the telephone conversation. Israeli leaders have called for the report to be retracted since it was issued in 2009.
“There was absolutely no discussion about the Goldstone report on the call,” the jurist said in a telephone interview from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.
Goldstone said he thanked Yishai for calling and “stated that my concern was to work for truth, justice and human rights.”
Goldstone did confirm that Yishai had invited him to visit Israel and that he had accepted but would be unable to travel to the Jewish state until July.
“I ended the conversation by expressing my love for Israel,” Goldstone said, adding that Yishai spoke in Hebrew which was translated for the judge.
In the Post article, Goldstone lauded Israel for conducting dozens of investigations into alleged wrongdoing. In particular, he sighted evidence that a deadly strike that killed more than 20 members of a Palestinian family resulted from faulty intelligence and was not an intentional attack.
Nevertheless, Goldstone said, he did not intend to seek the report’s nullification.
“As appears from the Washington Post article, information subsequent to publication of the report did meet with the view that one correction should be made with regard to intentionality on the part of Israel,” the judge said. “Further information as a result of domestic investigations could lead to further reconsideration, but as presently advised I have no reason to believe any part of the report needs to be reconsidered at this time.”
Yishai told Israel’s Army Radio station that he phoned Goldstone to express his appreciation for Goldstone’s “courageous” reconsideration of his charges, and to invite him to tour Israel’s southern communities that have sustained years of Palestinian rocket fire.
Yishai said Goldstone “as a Jew understands well the story of the Jewish people’s suffering … and it is very important for him to come and see this.”
The minister added that Goldstone promised him he would take additional steps to retract his U.N. report.
Also speaking on Army Radio, Danny Gillerman, a former Israeli ambassador to the U.N. who also participated in the phone call, quoted Goldstone as saying he was ready to take steps to change the status of the report, but first wanted to “wait for the dust to settle” following his op-ed article in the Post.
The Geneva-based Human Rights Council has said it will continue to treat the report as a legitimate working document. Spokesman Cedric Sapey told the AP on Monday that Goldstone would have to submit a formal request for the report to be withdrawn.
Last month, a majority of the council’s 47 members voted to pass the report up to the General Assembly, recommending the powerful U.N. Security Council be asked to submit it to prosecutors at the International Criminal Court.
Such a move is unlikely to pass the Security Council, where Israel’s strongest ally, the United States, has veto power. But the mere suggestion of bringing war crimes charges has infuriated Israel.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner had welcomed Goldstone’s article that said he subsequently determined Israel had not intentionally attacked civilians.
“We’ve made clear from when the Goldstone Report was initially presented and maintained ever since that we didn’t see any evidence that the Israeli government had intentionally targeted civilians or otherwise engaged in any war crimes; and now that we see that Justice Goldstone has reached the same conclusion,” Toner said Monday.
“I can say that we remain concerned and we’ll continue working to an end to the what we believe is an anti-Israel bias in the Human Rights Council,” Toner said.
Israel attacked the Gaza Strip in December 2008 in response to years of persistent rocket fire from militants in Gaza at southern Israel.
Some 1,400 Palestinians, including hundreds of civilians, and 13 Israelis were killed during the campaign.
Israel has blamed Hamas for the heavy civilian toll, saying the militant group staged attacks from heavily populated residential areas, as well as mosques and schools.
If this guy had a conscience, he would take the bold step of saying, “I made a mistake”, followed by a move to retract a “working document” that bases conclusions on errors. We all witnessed the entire investigation as a witchhunt against Israel. No one could see it differently. Only certain information sources were given credibility, and anything submitted by Israel that suggested that Hamas was responsible for anything was dismissed. It was corrupt from the beginning. However, when he had the epiphany that he had goofed badly, he made a small retractory statement, without the basic strength to follow through.
So here’s our guy. Undertakes a corrupt process with conclusions made prior to the research, files a distorted report with the UN that is eager to blame Israel, waits a long time to whisper “Oops”, then utters contradictory statements about the “report”. This ain’t my idea of a man of character, integrity, or honesty. I would not give him Shlishi, Shishi, or Maftir.
And yet we rush to invite him to Israel! Ah! To be a free nation in our land! America!
#1 – You said it so well. What a disgusting mess he has made. He seems to relish his role of sending contradictory messages to the world at Israel’s expense. Like it’s some kind of game he can play at his whim. How lacking in a conscience can this man be?
The man is a “menuval,” pure and simple.
And Eli Yishai is a fool for making nice. Tell him to stay away from Israel. When he is properly ostracised, completely, like a Metzora.
Yeah yeah Goldstone…
Let me tell you something:
This time of year, “Pesach” comes around.
We sit around our stunning “Seder” tables and relive all we’ve been through.
Many years ago, the UN was not around, nobody sent ignorant judges on fact-finding missions. At the time, there was a dictator, his name was Pharoh. He didn’t like us Jews. He enslaved us, brutally tortured us and killed many of us too.
He had no clue who he was messing with. It took 10 plagues for him to figure it out.
The stubborn dictator was stupid enough to go after us after all that. And that’s when the world witnessed the greatest miracle of all times, the red sea split for us to pass, then made dinner of the egyptian army.
History repeats itself, we were never let alone.
Most of us, young adults, are lucky enough to have a Zaidy or Bubby sitting with us at the Seder table. They tell us their own personal “redemption” story. Some worked in labor camps, others were always on the run hiding out in the homes of righteous non jews.
All witnessed most of their families being butchered in cold blood.
They saw no light at the end of It all. They could not ever imagine surviving, let alone rebuilding all they’ve lost. Yet, it is a few years later, and they’re sitting with families far larger then the ones taken from them back in Eastern Europe.
When they say “V’hu sheamda”, tears of joy and sorrow flow down their cheeks. They think about what Hitler had done, all they’ve lost.
At the same time they’re celebrating and so grateful not only for their survival but for all god has given them thereafter.
You honor Judge Goldstone,
I do not know your motives, but your agenda is quite clear, and yes, you succeeded. Ministers from our homeland can not travel freely and Israel’s hands were tied. They can no longer defend their citizens against the rockets being fired by the people you based your report on.
At this point your honor, we don’t need you to nullify anything. God managed with Pharoh, without Pharoh’s consent, Hitler’s plan of a “judenrein” world almost succeeded only GOD would not let it happen.
He who saved us from Pharoh, Stalin and Hitler will save us from you too.
One Pesach night, down the golden chain of our history, while sitting around the seder table, we will rejoice at how we were saved from your report/agenda too.
The only question remaining is: what are your grandkids going to talk about?
Do it for them.
Am Yisroel Chai!