S. Shamir, Haaretz, 15 October 2009
Israel's ambassador to the UN, Gabriela Shalev, attacked both the Goldstone Report and the UN General Assembly yesterday as being "irreparably tainted" and "bending both fact and law."
The ambassador also said the report, which accused both Israel and Hamas of war crimes during their war in the Gaza Strip in January, was "born in hate and prepared in sin."
"[The] report and this debate do not promote peace; they damage any effort to revitalize negotiations in our region," added Shalev, who was one of the first speakers at the assembly's debate on the report.
The ambassador said the report ignored "the reality of terror" and the complexities of urban warfare against terrorists.
She also dismissed the Goldstone panel as "a politicized body with predetermined conclusions."
Shalev reminded the General Assembly that Israel had suffered eight years of rocket attacks from Gaza, which violated the human rights of Israeli civilians.
"[But] rather than discuss how to better stop terrorist groups who deliberately target civilians, this body launches yet another campaign against the victims of terrorism, the people of Israel," she said.
Time and again, Shalev charged, the report turned Israel's unprecedented efforts to save civilian lives against it, using them as proof that any civilian casualties were therefore deliberate.
She also criticized the report for dismissing Israel's independent legal system, its investigations of misconduct in the armed forces, and its right to self-defense.
Goldstone's report urged the Security Council to order both sides to carry out credible investigations into alleged abuses during the conflict and to follow that up with legal action where necessary.
If either side refuses, the panel said, the Security Council should forward the evidence to the International Criminal Court, the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal, for prosecution.
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