The former judge, a long-time supporter of Israel and human rights, wrote an op-ed piece in the Washington Post in which he said that had he known then what he knows now the finished UN Human Rights Council report would look very different.
At the heart of the issue is an apparent change of mind by Judge Goldstone as to whether or not the Israeli Defence Force deliberately targeted Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Judge Goldstone, responding to a review of his inquiry by New York Judge Mary McGowan Davis, said that it appeared Israel did not actually have an explicit policy of causing intentional harm to civilians. His enigmatic clarification has been seized on by Israel and the US who are seeking to discredit and
shelve the report, and he, in turn, has been condemned by states hostile to Israel.
Fourteen hundred Palestinian men, women and children were killed in Operation Cast Lead. Thirteen Israeli citizens lost their lives. The Israeli operation – which was carried out during the post-Christmas, post-election changeover in Washington – was in response to sustained rocket attacks on civilian settlers by Hamas.
So great has the personal demonisation of Judge Goldstone been that at one point last year attempts were made to bar him from his grandson’s bar mitzvah in Johannesburg.
