Acknowledging that some members of the Human Rights Council have a worse human rights record than Israel can hardly absolve us from responsibility for our own conduct.

Contrary to the impression conveyed in Wednesday's Jerusalem Post, B'Tselem views the Goldstone report as the result of serious, professional research that is genuinely concerned with promoting justice. All the tendentious mudslinging and the more grounded criticism cannot delegitimize the report's central recommendation: that Israel must conduct credible investigations into its own conduct. The whole international system is based on the premise that justice should be done at home. Only in cases where there is no possibility of obtaining a domestic remedy does the international community step in to fill the vacuum.

FOR MONTHS, Israeli human rights organizations have urged our government to open credible, independent investigations into the hundreds of allegations of military misconduct in Gaza. The authorities have stubbornly refused, largely making do with military debriefings that categorically absolve our forces of any wrongdoing. Only a handful of military police investigations have been opened, and the one criminal investigation to be concluded is the exception that proves the rule. A soldier in the Givati brigade was tried, convicted and sentenced - for stealing a credit card.

At last, we have now heard that the government is considering opening an independent Israeli investigation into the operation head by former Chief Justice Aharon Barak. Such a move must be applauded and supported. However, this investigation must not simply be a way to deflect criticism and reach a foregone conclusion that Israel has done no wrong. It must be a tool to promote a search for the truth. As we emerge from a period of personal reflection and reckoning, we must take the next brave step as a society: to stand as our own judges for the acts committed in Gaza. Every Israeli has the right to know what the army does in our name, and it is our duty as a democracy to ensure that the principles of public debate and criticism be upheld. As Jews, it is our moral obligation to ensure that international law, formulated after WWII to protect innocents at time of war, be upheld.

So we now have a choice. We can continue to shoot the messenger and bury our heads in the sand, hoping despite all signs to the contrary that this whole controversy will somehow disappear. Or we can initiate a genuine process of truth-telling and taking responsibility. Such a process may well be painful, but we will emerge stronger and healthier for it.

This is the time to do it.

The writer is Executive Director of B'Tselem: the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it