UN-Truth

Haaretz journalist Tomer Zarchin has conducted an email interview with South Africa’s Justice Richard Goldstone about recent Israeli criticism of his recent report on last winter’s Gaza war — and about him. According to the Haaretz account,
“Judge Richard Goldstone told Haaretz Thursday that President Shimon Peres’ remarks criticizing him were ’specious and ill-befitting the head of State of Israel’. Peres was quoted Wednesday as calling Goldstone ‘a small man, devoid of any sense of justice, a technocrat with no real understanding of jurisprudence’, who was ‘on a one-sided mission to hurt Israel’. In Thursday’s interview by e-mail with Haaretz, Goldstone said [apparently referring to the United States]: “I do not believe that any nation should protect another nation blindly. I would prefer to see the United States furnish reasons for criticizing the report. The United States has supported our call for credible investigations by Israel and by the Gaza authorities, whether the PA or Hamas … It does not suffice for the military to investigate itself. That will satisfy very few people and certainly not the victims” … When asked how far up the chain of command he felt such a criminal investigation should go, and whether decision-makers in government be its subject, he replied: “A criminal investigation should go as high up the chain of command, both military and civilian, as the evidence justifies … The report is based on the assumption that Israel was entitled to act in self-defense. The investigation was concerned with whether the exercise of the right to self-defense was lawful or unlawful … I would suggest that time has come for Israel to look at the allegations not only of the killing and injuring of so many civilians but also the collective punishment meted out to the people of Gaza by the substantial destruction of the infrastructure, and particularly the food infrastructure of Gaza. The debate should continue, not attempt to be silenced.”

Asked what he thought about a “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and pressed by the interviewer on whether or not he believed such a commission would establish “accountability in a more constructive fashion than criminal proceedings”, Goldstone reportedly replied that it would, “on condition that it is set up to look at allegations on all sides and is established by a democratic process.”

Goldstone also said to Haaretz that “I would suggest that time has come for Israel to look at the allegations not only of the killing and injuring of so many civilians but also the collective punishment meted out to the people of Gaza by the substantial destruction of the infrastructure, and particularly the food infrastructure of Gaza. The debate should continue, not attempt to be silenced.” This Haaretz story can be read in full here.

UPDATE: Haaretz’s Gideon Levy commented on Sunday on the Shimon Peres remarks concerning Justice Goldstone: “President Shimon Peres considers Richard Goldstone a ’small man, devoid of any sense of justice, a technocrat with no real understanding of jurisprudence’. Same to you, we used to say when we were kids. Indeed, it’s amazing to see how aptly these harsh remarks describe Peres himself, a small man, devoid of any sense of justice. A president who tongue-lashes an internationally acclaimed jurist, a senior representative of the United Nations, mainly attests to his own character. The attacks on Goldstone have devolved; they have become personal and unbridled. When they are uttered by the president, in a meeting with his esteemed Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva no less, it shows we have completely lost our way. Peres fulminated in the name of us all. This is not only a matter of personal etiquette, at which Peres normally excels. This is about the image of a country whose number-one citizen speaks so rudely against a global emissary. That is Peres’ ‘PR mission’ that everyone here is cheering. Goldstone has already chalked up one impressive achievement: We will now think twice or even three times before sending Israeli soldiers out on another brutal attack like Operation Cast Lead. His report will echo in the ears of politicians and generals before they give the order to move out. Perhaps the brutality is not over; certainly this is not a farewell to arms, but there will be new considerations and restraint. Without our admitting it, Goldstone has become the developer of the Israel Defense Forces’ new ethics code”.
[But I am not so sure ... the IDF Chief of Staff said last week that if necessary, there will be another attack on Gaza...]
In any case, this Gideon Levy article can be read in full here.

Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Gaza, Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, International Law, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians