Saturday, June 5, 2010

This makes for some good reading...

The tragedies that continually befall the people in Gaza and all of PALESTINE are attrocious, whether the victim is Palestinian or Israeli. Goldstone, who headed the UN reporting team, is an international jurist and JEWISH. In an address to the Jewish community on May 4, 2010, Goldstone said, "I have spent much of my professional life in the cause of international criminal justice. It would have been hypocritical for me to continue to speak out against violations of international law and impunity for war crimes around the world but remain silent when it came to Israel simply because I am Jewish."


This article is regarding the US response to the war crimes that were cited against Israel, which greatly outnumber those cited for Palestine.
US House Rejects Goldstone Report

This is Israel's response to the Goldstone report.

Israel Prepares to Fight War Crimes Claims After UN Gaza Report

This is an excerpt from a Wikipedia article regarding the Goldstone Report.

The United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict was a team established by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) during the Gaza War as an independent international fact-finding mission to investigate violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, particularly in the occupied Gaza Strip, in connection with the conflict.[1] The mission was established on 3 April 2009, by the President of the UNHRC. Richard Goldstone, a respected international jurist from South Africa,[2] was appointed to head the mission,[1] accompanied by Christine Chinkin of the United Kingdom,
Hina Jilani of Pakistan, and Desmond Travers of Ireland.[3]

The mission's final report was released 15 September 2009, and accused both Israeli Defense Forces and Palestinian militants of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity. It recommended that the sides openly investigate their own conduct and, should they fail to do so, that the allegations to be brought to the International Criminal Court.[4][5] The Israeli government rejected the report as prejudiced and full of errors.[6] The militant Islamic group Hamas, deemed a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union, and others, which governs the Gaza Strip, initially rejected the report's findings,[7] but then urged world powers to embrace it.[8]

The controversial[9][10][11][12] report received wide support among developing countries in the United Nations, while Western countries were split between supporters and opponents of the resolutions endorsing the report. Supporters argued that the findings were accurate, that Goldstone was a fair, credible figure, and that the recommendations of the report should be implemented. Critics argued that the report was factually and/or methodologically flawed, and motivated by anti-Israel bias in the UNHRC.[13]

On 16 October 2009, the UNHRC passed a resolution endorsing the report and criticizing Israel, and on 4 November 2009, the United Nations General Assembly passed a non-binding resolution calling for independent investigations to be conducted by Israel and Palestinian armed groups on allegations of war crimes described in the report. On 3 November 2009, the United States House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a resolution denouncing the report as "irredeemably biased and unworthy of further consideration or legitimacy." In contrast, the European Parliament passed a resolution endorsing the Goldstone report in March 2010. The resolution called on the bloc's member states to "publicly demand the implementation of [the report's] recommendations and accountability for all violations of international law, including alleged war crimes."

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