UNDERSTANDING
THE GOLDSTONE REPORT

Dear Richard,

As P.W. Botha would have said, "Your report is too dastardly to contemplate". When I met P.W. on the Angolan border on the 27 March 1976, he told me how much he admired Israel and it's people (Die Jode in Israel ). Is it not incredible that P.W. Botha being Prime Minister at the height of apartheid so much admired us and you, a Jew, whom P.W. granted a meteoric rise to Appellate Judge, so much hates us. Are you not ashamed?

As an Israeli Jew, and as an Old Edwardian, I am mystified by your behaviour. It is unbelievable that you have seen fit to cause us such great damage and damage extending into the future, but hereunder, I will prove to you why you have done this. But first, I will prove to you why your report is null and void.

From Haaretz:

Goldstone, I too am a war criminal

By David Chinitz

I moved to Israel from the United States in December 1981. It was the same day that the Israeli government officially annexed the Golan Heights. Hearing about it literally as me, my wife and our three month old daughter - now a lawyer in Tel Aviv - were about to board the plane, I mentally processed the issues: Is such a unilateral move legal? Is it wise? Is it just? To be honest, I pretty much just shrugged and got on the plane.

Over the last 28 years I have come to appreciate the shrug as the signature gesture of Israeli children. When an Israeli child has doubts about something on offer from an adult, the shrug is her way of signaling: "Sorry, that doesn't work for me." While the physical shrug disappears with age, the Israeli manner of shrugging things off is at one and the same endearing and off -putting. But given the environment of endless hostility in which Israelis live, their shrug is not the kind that reflects callousness but reconciliation to the fact that life in this part of the world is really messy, both morally and practically. There's not much choice but to carry on.

Ricki Hollander from CAMERA sends Goldstone a carefully documented and reasoned challenge to both the Report and to topics he raised at his Brandeis exchange with Dore Gold (e.g., Maqadmah Mosque and el Bader Flour Mill).  Goldstone, who insists no one has seriously challenged his Report, explicitly refuses to respond.

December 7, 2009

by Ricki Hollander

A Formal Letter to Justice Goldstone

UPDATED: Dec. 7, 2009

Nov. 17, 2009

Dear Justice Goldstone,

You've frequently accused critics of presenting ad hominem arguments against you instead of dealing with the substance of the Report prepared by the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict which you headed. I have several specific questions about the substance of the report arising from statements made there and from your own subsequent comments on November 5th at Brandeis University. I hope that you will clarify these points and address my concerns.

The Mission concluded that Israel may be guilty of war crimes based on the assumption that the country's military forces and leaders deliberately targeted civilians. In order to reach this conclusion, the Mission ignored or discounted available evidence that contradicted that assumption while ignoring the weaknesses in testimony and evidence that imputed to Israel the motive of targeting civilians. This gives rise to the following questions.

Dear Colleague:

Last week, Justice Richard Goldstone sent us and other Members a memorandum outlining his “strong reservations about the text of the resolution” (H.Res.867) that will be voted upon by the House tomorrow. We have the utmost respect for Justice Goldstone, but we disagree with his criticisms of H.Res.867.  Our primary concerns are as follows:

Dear Judge Goldstone, My name is Dr. David Zangen, I am a consultant in Pediatric Endocrinology and diabetes at Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem. Over 50% of my patient population is Palestinian from Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. I speak Arabic and initiated the first training program for Palestinian physicians in the field of Pediatric Endocrinology. The trained physicians were fully respected and were included as first authors on our studies that are published in world leading professional journals.

Trevor Norwitz was born in South Africa and is a graduate of the University of Cape Town, Oxford, and Columbia. He is a partner at a leading New York law firm and teaches at Columbia University Law School.

New York, New York

October 19, 2009

Judge Richard Goldstone

Head of the UN HRC Fact Finding Mission on Gaza

Via email

Dear Richard:

I have finally completed my review of your Report( 1) which, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read quickly or widely, to paraphrase that infamous war criminal (by your definition) Winston Churchill.   I am profoundly disappointed by the contents of your Report, but I am also troubled by the ad hominem attacks that have been directed towards you. I offer this analysis and critique in the spirit of your article in the Jerusalem Post today2, looking only at the substance of your Report  and relying neither on its authors’ motives nor their reputation. I do so in an effort to advance the cause of truth and in the hope that you may yet be willing to take actions to mitigate the terrible injustice and damage that your Report is causing. To that end, I am respectfully including some suggestions for you at the end of this letter (which is longer than the one I sent you on July 14 – attached again for your reference – but which I hope you will take time to read).

In a nutshell, your Report is a deeply flawed document that is not only unbalanced and inflammatory, but reflects a procedurally deficient rush to judgment incapable producing any  meaningful findings, least of all charges as grave, politically loaded and emotionally laden as those of “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity”.

July 8, 2009

From Elder of Ziyon:

My letter to the Gaza fact-finding mission

I just wrote this letter to the UN Gaza fact-finding mission. We will see if they respond.

Unfortunately, I didn't know about this method of submitting information to them until today, and their deadline was June 30th.

Dear Judge Goldstone:

I read yesterday in Ma'an that the UN Gaza fact-finding mission listened to lengthy testimony from the PCHR while in Jordan, and was asked specific questions about the legal status of the policemen killed during Operation Cast Lead as well as the PCHR's methodologies.

I am a blogger who has been looking at the PCHR's claims since it released its list of people killed in Gaza. I have been maintaining a list of people whom the PCHR called "civilian" but who have actually been members of various militant organizations.

So far I and my team has identified some 306 people who were labeled civilians by the PCHR who were, in fact, members of militant groups.