(Thumbnail image: The Washington Note)
“As far as the mandate is concerned, I think it was made very clear by me in this very same room when my appointment was announced that the mandate I accepted was an even-handed mandate and I hope the report demonstrates that.” (United Nations TV)
South African Judge Richard Goldstone’s publication of his UN committee’s fact-finding report on violence in Gaza was met last month by little media fanfare. But now, with the UN Security Council poised to debate the report, international sources are speaking out on the document’s grave accusations of war crimes on both sides.
We’re tracking perspectives of the report and its implications from France 24, Al Jazeera English, The Jerusalem Post, News24, and The Jewish Daily Forward.
We begin with France 24, who says that the report may be especially harmful to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
“The Fatah party and Abbas himself have lost a lot of points over the Goldstone report and for not pushing that it should go to the UN Security Council...The price politically has been huge for Fatah.”
Al Jazeera English focuses on Palestinian residents’ and politicians’ reactions to the publication.
“‘They keep bickering about dictates and fighting for their interests. Both sides have struggled for Palestine. The entire people struggles!’...Fatah, which has called for accountability over the Goldstone controversy, seems aware that counter-attacks will not help save its standing.”
The Jerusalem Post on the other hand, criticizes the report and says that the UN needs to investigate Goldstone himself, not Israel.
“It rapidly becomes clear to any reader not driven by a thirst for 'dirt' on Israel, that Goldstone's work represents a new low in the tragically deteriorating world of international justice. It fails on every count...”
In Goldstone’s home country of South Africa, News24.com brings a view from a trade union representative who praises Goldstone’s effort at an inherently difficult task.
“Justice Goldstone has refused to be blackmailed on the basis of his nationality, as a proud South African Jew, but chose the truth and justice above narrow right-wing chauvinism.”
Finally, we hear from Goldstone himself, who talks to the New York-based Jewish Daily Forward. He says in the interview...
“Ours wasn’t an investigation, it was a fact-finding mission…We had to do the best we could with the material we had. If this was a court of law, there would have been nothing proven.”
Does the Goldstone Report merit such close international scrutiny? Or are countries trying to use it for their own political means?
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