Goldstone confession prompts leaders’ hope
JEWISH communal leaders have joined an international chorus in welcoming a backflip by Richard Goldstone, after he recanted the core of his hotly disputed United Nations report into Operation Cast Lead.
JEWISH communal leaders have joined an international chorus in welcoming a backflip by Richard Goldstone, after he recanted the core of his hotly disputed United Nations report into Operation Cast Lead.
The September 2009 report into the 2008-09 Gaza war accused the Jewish State of committing war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.
But in an April 1 Washington Post article, Goldstone said his gravest accusation against Israel, that it deliberately targeted civilians, appears to have been wrong.
And the retired South African judge said, “If I’d known then what I know now, the Goldstone report would have been a very different document.”
Zionist Federation of Australia president Philip Chester said this week that Goldstone’s about-face “illustrates how one-sided and biased the report was”.
“It’s very sad because it caused tremendous harm to Israel, which was completely unjustified. I hope something good will come out of it, and that his calls for the United Nations to take a more balanced, fairer view of Israel’s actions will actually be heard by the organisation and have some effect.
“I’m not overly optimistic about that, but maybe it will be a bit of a wake-up call for some fair-minded people to be a bit more balanced about how they judge Israel’s actions.”
Chester was among local critics of the report when it was released in September 2009, as was Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Dr Colin Rubenstein, and Melbourne Ports MP Michael Danby.
Dr Rubenstein welcomed Goldstone’s new take on the Gaza war, but said the judge could not undo the damage.
“What Goldstone’s volte-face highlights yet again is that the dysfunctional UN system that produced his report, as emphatically exemplified by the irredeemably corrupted and biased UN Human Rights Council, must have a root-and-branch overhaul. Until this occurs, no person of either good will or good sense should take seriously any of its pronouncements or decisions with respect to the Middle East.
“In the meantime, it will be interesting to see if Australian media outlets, which gave saturation coverage to Goldstone’s inflammatory allegations, will now equally cover his retraction.”
Danby said Goldstone “can never atone for the millions of words criticising Israel and its supporters that his report authorised”.
“It’s a shame that the many unreasoning critics of Israel used Goldstone’s Jewish heritage to authenticate their false criticisms.”
For full coverage of the Goldstone retraction, see this week’s AJN.
PETER KOHN
Image: Richard Goldstone. Photo: AJN file
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