This piece was reprinted by OpEd News with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
Amnesty International's (AI) Response to the Goldstone Report
Donatella Rovera, head AI's Operation Cast Lead investigation, called on the UN Human Rights Council to "endorse the report and its recommendations and request the UN Secretary-General to refer it to the UN Security Council. (It) and other UN bodies must now take the necessary steps to ensure that the victims receive justice and reparation that is their due and that perpetrators don't get away with murder." The Security Council "must refer the Goldstone findings to the International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor if Israel and Hamas do not carry out credible investigations within a set, limited period." AI added that the report's findings are consistent with its own.
The New York Times Response to the Goldstone Report
A September 15 Neil MacFarquhar article quoted the report citing Israel's "deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population," but suggested that Hamas was equally culpable.
Then on September 17, it published two highly critical letters of Goldstone. One was from Richard Sideman, president of the American Jewish Committee saying:
"Richard Goldstone displays the same disregard for Israel and naivete regarding Hamas that permeates the report he wrote for the United Nations Human Rights Council."
He then vilified the HRC as "consistently demoniz(ing) Israel while giving a free pass to some of the world's worst tyrants, from Sudan to Iran, (and) Mr. Goldstone largely neglects what prompted Israel to act militarily against Hamas....In sum, Mr. Goldstone's conclusions are a disservice to the credibility of the United Nations itself."
In the second letter, Matan Shamir, a Legacy Heritage Fellow, said Richard Goldstone is "absolutely right" about "the 'corrosive effect on international justice' and the 'unacceptable hypocrisy' of not holding Israel accountable....but through the select application of international law against one democratic nation, Israel." By that standard, "United States troops would similarly be unable to defend themselves in Iraq and Afghanistan without being smeared as war criminals."
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
