Goldstone Report

A controversial appraisal of the 2009 Gaza conflict, commissioned by the United Nations Human Rights Council, the Goldstone Report accused both sides of war crimes.

Previous investigation

There had been an earlier UN investigation, specifically on Israeli activities with regard to UN installations in Gaza, in May 2009. The report, commissioned by Secretary-General of the UN Ban Ki-moon, detailed the conclusions of a four-member board led by the United Kingdom's Ian Martin, a human rights activist and Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Nepal. The board examined the circumstances behind several incidents at UN premises, including the deaths of up to 40 civilians at a UN school on 15th January, and referred to the Israeli military as

involved in varying degrees of negligence or recklessness with regard to United Nations premises and to the safety of United Nations staff and other civilians within those premises, with consequent deaths, injuries, and extensive physical damage and loss of property".

At the time, Ban Ki-moon ruled out further inquiries, with his covering letter attached to the report emphasising that the report was not legally binding and that rockets attacks against Israel had occurred. Nevertheless, the Goldstone Report was the result of a subsequent invstigation.

Investigators

It was led by South African jurist Richard Goldstone, which found evidence of war crimes on both sides. Goldstone is former judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and former Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, to head the Mission. The other three appointed members were:

• Christine Chinkin, Professor of International Law at the London School of Economics, who was a member of the high-level fact-finding mission to Beit Hanoun (2008)
• Hina Jilani, Advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and former Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the situation of human rights defenders, who was a member of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur (2004)
• Desmond Travers, a former Officer in Ireland’s Defence Forces and member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for International Criminal Investigations.

Findings

The report, indeed, does not specifically address self-defense or justification, but focuses on the events in the operation, as well as blockade following the period of intense combat. "the Mission determined that it was required to consider any actions by all parties that might have constituted violations of international human rights law or international humanitarian law. The mandate also required it to review related actions in the entire Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel."

Israeli involvement

The Government of Israel did not work with the Mission. "The Mission repeatedly sought to obtain the cooperation of the Government of Israel. After numerous attempts had failed, the Mission sought and obtained the assistance of the Government of Egypt to enable it to enter the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing." The 575-page report was presented to the UN Human Rights Council on September 29. Israel's initial response was

he Report of the Fact-Finding Mission established pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution S-9/1 was instigated as part of a political campaign, and itself represents a political assault directed against Israel and against every State forced to confront terrorist threats.

In the eyes of the authors of the Report, Israel's operation in Gaza had nothing to do with the 12,000 rockets and mortars fired by Hamas over eight years on towns and villages inside Israel, nor with the fact that close to one million Israeli citizens had to live their lives within seconds of bomb-shelters because they were in range of Hamas attacks. Nor, in their view, did it have anything to do with the smuggling of weapons and ammunition to terrorist groups through hundreds of tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border. Indeed, neither the right to self defense nor the smuggling of weapons into the Gaza Strip are even mentioned in the Report.

Support

A Haaretz commentator called it different than previous UN reports, generally fair in condemning actions on both sides, and creating immense political problems for the Israeli government.

Criticism

Non-Israeli critics of the Report include Alan Dershowitz.