Goldstone Report: Jewish Voice For Peace

JVP Responds to the Goldstone Report

The UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, better known as the “Goldstone Report,” was presented to the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday, September 29. The report recommends that the Security Council pass the issue to the International Criminal Court if Israel and Hamas do not make “good faith” efforts to investigate the allegations within six months.

The Palestinian Authority first shocked the world when it dropped its draft resolution before the UN Human Rights Council, in effect deferring the report until March of 2010. The PA did this under intense pressure from the Obama administration (1) and economic blackmail by Israel (2).

However, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, after strong protests from Palestinian civil society, reversed course and decided to reintroduce the Goldstone Report to the UN Human Rights Council, including discussion of unrest in Jerusalem and ongoing conditions in Gaza. The report will be heard and debated at the Council on Thursday and Friday, October 15th and 16th.

JVP supports the Goldstone Report recommendations as well as the overall thrust of the document.

JVP believes it is a well-researched, fair-minded report. It accuses both Israel and Hamas of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity, while rightfully placing greater emphasis on Israeli violations of international law, especially regarding the killing of civilians.

Further, it confirms numerous previously published reports by highly regarded organizations including:
• Amnesty International
• B’tselem
• Breaking the Silence, whose report is comprised of testimonies of Israeli soldiers who participated in the operation
• Human Rights Watch
• Physicians for Human Rights

The investigation was led by respected South African jurist Richard Goldstone. He’s a former member of the South African Constitutional Court and former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. He also happens to be Jewish and has strong ties to Israel, which, though it should not be a requirement for the position, certainly adds an important dimension to the increasingly hysterical charges of bias and Jew-hatred.

It is true that the Goldstone Report is not perfect, especially because Israel refused to participate in the investigation. It is also true that the UN’s Human Rights Council unfairly targets Israel and tends to overlook the human rights violations of other countries.

Finally, we at JVP are deeply angered by the Obama Administration, which is working in tandem with the Israeli government to de-legitimize the findings of the report. Rather than focusing on the many violations of law, emphasis is being placed on the alleged faulty methodology of the report and the objectivity of the reporters.

The US pressure seems to indicate that the Obama Administration’s approach to Israel and Palestine does not differ significantly from previous administrations, in that it reflexively protects Israel’s interests, even in the face of violations of international law. Given President Obama’s stated goal to renew the peace process between Israel and Palestine, this position on Goldstone undermines the U.S.’s ability to be an honest broker in that process.

In addition, JVP is saddened by the response to the Goldstone Report by many American Jewish leaders. However Rabbi Brant Rosen, writing in the Chicago Tribune, said just before Yom Kippur,

“Rather than jointly consider Israel's acts in Gaza, carry out real cheshbon nefesh (moral accounting), and accept our communal responsibility, it has proven easier for many of us to employ communal defense mechanisms, and insist that in this particular case, there's no need for reflection.

Since the report's publication, the UN and commission chair Judge Richard Goldstone have been vilified and disparaged, by both the Israeli government and American Jewish leaders. There has been little consideration of the actual findings, or the fact that Israel refused to cooperate with the commission, or conduct its own investigation.

As a rabbi, this grieves me deeply. For, painful as it is for us to admit, Israel's behavior in Gaza has consistently betrayed our shared Jewish ethical legacy.

This was true before the war, when the Israeli blockade denied Palestinians basic necessities; it was true during the war, when Israel responded with disproportionate force to Hamas rockets; and it has been true since the war.” (3)

JVP strongly urges that the Goldstone Report findings be taken with all the serious consideration it merits, and that its recommendations be implemented.

(1) Ravid, Barak, “Source: Palestinians drop endorsement of Goldstone report” Haaretz, October 2, 2009, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1118235.html and Guttman, Nathan, “Israel, US, Work to Limit Damage of Goldstone Report” Haaretz, September 27, 2009, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1117314.html
(2) Lynfield, Ben, “Israel Threatens Palestinian Phone Service Over War Crimes Claims” the Independent October 1, 2009, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/01/israel-threatens-palestin_n_306748.html
(3) Rosen, Brant, “A Call to Moral Accounting” September 27th, The Chicago Tribune, http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-oped0927mideastsep27,0,654462.story

Taken from http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/publish/article_1216.shtml