Implement Goldstone’s Recommendations to the UN about the Gaza War
by Michael Lerner
Judge Richard Goldstone's report on the assault by Israel on Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009 criticized human rights violations by Hamas in its shelling of Israeli population centers, as well as the far greater number of human rights violations by Israel against Palestinian civilians. It called for Hamas and for Israel to conduct credible objective investigations into what happened and, failing that, called upon the UN to refer these cases to the International Criminal Court.
Goldstone is an internationally respected jurist who played an important role in investigating crimes of the apartheid government in South Africa and in creating the Truth and Reconciliation Process that helped make peace between South African blacks and the white minority that had previously oppressed them. When the Security Council established International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda in 1993-1994, Goldstone was appointed chief prosecutor for both. He was a member of the International Panel of the Commission of Enquiry into the Activities of Nazism in Argentina (CEANA), which was established in 1997 to identify Nazi war criminals who had emigrated and transferred victim assets (Nazi gold) to Argentina. Goldstone was chairman of the International Independent Inquiry on Kosovo from August 1999 until December 2001.
Goldstone serves on the board of directors of several nonprofit organizations that promote justice, including Physicians for Human Rights; the International Center for Transitional Justice; the South African Legal Services Foundation; Human Rights Watch; the Center for Economic and Social Rights; and the Brandeis University Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life.
He is a trustee of Hebrew University and a lifelong and passionate Zionist.
None of this stopped the pro-settler right-wing lobby in the United States and Israel from denouncing him as a self-hating Jew and his report as anti-Semitic. The lies flew wildly: that his report did not mention the provocation of Hamas in its shellings of Southern Israel, that he criticized only Israel but not Hamas, that the report did not recognize the right of a country to defend itself against terrorism, and more.
Given the similar distortions about Tikkun that we have suffered throughout the years, we were hardly surprised. The truth is that both the Right and the center of the Jewish world in the United States and Israel are so emotionally blinded by fear of Palestinians and fear of what others will say about any lack of adequate zealotry in defending Israel that they lose all capacity to make rational judgments.
In this context, we interviewed Judge Goldstone in October. We urge you to read that interview carefully to get a full sense of the decency, moderation, and strong commitment to Israel's well-being that comes through. You can find it in the "Current Thinking" section of our home page at www.tikkun.org or by putting the following URL in your web browser: www.tikkun.org/goldstone.
Goldstone refutes the argument that attending to these human rights violations of international law will somehow slow down or deflect the peace process. There is no peace process. The Netanyahu government is all too happy to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority, but the only Palestinian state it is willing to concede is one that holds in place hundreds of thousands of West Bank settlers and denies the Palestinians control over their own border (in short, a mini version of the outdoor prison they call Gaza, where Israel prevents the import of food and medicine in a deliberate attempt to physically weaken the entire population as collective punishment for the sins of a small Hamas force).
The most likely outcome of the Goldstone report is that the Israeli government will set up a sham "investigation" (like the CIA investigating its own role in Guantánamo or Abu Ghraib, or the U.S. military investigating its own abuses in Iraq), thus appearing to take the Goldstone report seriously while continuing the cover-up. Only a truly independent and credible investigation would provide a legitimate way for Israel to avoid being taken to the International Court. Israel would have to cooperate with but could not control the process or outcome of the investigation. (It refused to cooperate with Goldstone, but top Israeli officials have indicated to me personally that they know that was a mistake.)
The Obama administration has claimed that a focus on human rights violations is a distraction from peace negotiations. But as Judge Goldstone points out in this Tikkun interview (in which Rabbi Brian Walt assisted), there can never be peace without justice, because the resentments and unhealed anger created by human rights abuses (on both sides) need to be acknowledged and healed, or there is little chance that any peace agreement could withstand the fury and violence that unhealed anger at injustice will keep creating.
Meanwhile, all who support peace in the Middle East owe a lasting debt of gratitude to Judge Richard Goldstone.
