Professor William A. Schabas has posted an article on his blog: "Richard Goldstone did not Retract the Report"
Schabas was a member of the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He is a prolific author and has written many of the standard reference works employed in the field of international law, including books and articles dealing with criminal law and the International Criminal Court.
He re-examined the Goldstone report after the publication of the Washington Post editorial and explains that the primary allegations in the report were not retracted. Schabas notes that intentional targeting of civilians only consisted of one heading among thirteen dealing with violations of international law perpetrated by Israel. He says that even if that finding had been retracted it would not alter the core findings that the attacks on the civilian infrastructure and the objective of Cast Lead, were undertaken to deliberately punish the civilian population. The infrastructure that was destroyed was not attacked because those objects presented a military threat or opportunity, but rather because their destruction would make the daily process of living, and dignified living, more difficult for the civilian population.
He concludes that the real issue, and the real reason why there was such outrage about Cast Lead, is that Israel is still violently oppressing the Palestinians after more than sixty years and denying them the right to self-determination.
The author of this post is a regular commenter at this site who asks to remain anonymous.
“The infrastructure that was destroyed was not attacked because those objects presented a military threat or opportunity, but rather because their destruction would make the daily process of living, and dignified living, more difficult for the civilian population.”
You think that is true, that that is the reason that electrical and other infrastructure was destroyed?
What is the subsequent due process from the report? It gets referred to where? And, what is the court process? Who is the judge and jury?
Stop being lazy and read the report Witty. It’s not for others to do your homework for you.
It’s going to be fun to watch you get blindsided. You thought the Goldstone Report was dead and buried now, didn’t you?
Witty,
Of course the civilian infrastructure and thousands of homes were deliberately destroyed. Read the statements to that effect that were made at the time by Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai and Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni on page 256 of the report.
Persecution is a crime that falls within the jurisdiction of the ICC. Israel is still refusing to allow sufficient materials into Gaza so that the inhabitants can repair, recover, and get on with their lives. Due process would require that the General Assembly adopt sanctions and urge members to arrest and prosecute the responsible Israeli and Palestinian officials if they or the Security Council fail to end the situation. If the General Assembly makes Palestine a non-member observer state, Israeli officials will be facing indictments based on the report from the ICC.
I have been wondering about the legal implications of the Palestinian efforts to have the UN declare a state. I have been curious as to what recourse to appeal this provides Palestinians for all these atrocities. If you have thoughts on this I would be really interested to hear them.
Thank you Hostage for this and all your very constructive comments here. I hope you keep contributing.
Hostage, isn’t Palestine already a non-member observer at the UN? I thought the push was to have Palestine admitted as a full member-state this year.
Many treaties, including the Rome Statute, are only open for signature by States. That doesn’t make a great deal of sense in this case. “Crimes against humanity” was a category of offenses created in order to prosecute acts directed against Jews and others who had deliberately been made stateless. Although the acts are punishable when the are directed against “any civilian population”, non-state victims have no legal standing to file a complaint on their own behalf (Duh!). Although Palestine has been recognized by the majority of other states, Israel and its supporters have engaged in pedantic literalism to argue against the jurisdiction of the Court.
The US can block Palestine’s application for full UN membership in the Security Council. It does not have a veto in the specialized agencies, but in the case of the 1989 application for membership in UNESCO, it threatened to pull out and stop funding the organization.
Palestine and the Holy See are the only Permanent Observers, besides the international organizations and NGOs. The Holy See is a “non-member state”, while Palestine is described as an “entity”. link to un.org
The General Assembly could recognize Palestine by changing that designation to that of a non-member state.
FYI, in 2004 the Vatican unsuccessfully campaigned for full membership in the UN. See UNfulfilled: The Holy See backs off from its claim for full membership of the UN, settling for the rights already held by Palestine. So, Palestine has always been getting treated as a non-member state.
thanks hostage
Right now, Americans and Europeans turn on the news and see Arabs and Muslims killing each other in 10 or 15 countries.
President Obama is trying to keep the federal government running.
Portugal and Greece are bankrupt and sending the bill to Germany and France.
Gas is running at $4 a gallon and only G-d, ( the one most of you don’t believe in) knows what it will be next year.
I don’t even know what to say about Japan.
And there are still a handful of “activists” talking about how Jews living 5 kilometers East of Jerusalem is the world’s biggest problem.
There is no G-d but Marx and Chomsky is his messenger.
“G-d”
What does this mean? God damn?
“And there are still a handful of ‘activists’ talking about how Jews living 5 kilometers East of Jerusalem is the world’s biggest problem.”
Oh, it’s not that there are Jews living there, it’s what those Jews did, in stealing the land 5 km. East of al-Quds from its rightful owners and continuing to oppress them.
“There is no G-d but Marx and Chomsky is his messenger.”
Good to see you’re still a digusitng bigot. I wonder how you’d feel if commentary was made mocking Jewish prayers.
Dear Woody,
Some religous people beleive in not taking the Lord’s name in vain, and therefore delete to O.
And the “Marx Chomsky” quote is not mocking a Jewish prayer. Ask around.
>> And there are still a handful of “activists” talking about how Jews living 5 kilometers East of Jerusalem is the world’s biggest problem.
World’s biggest problem? Probably not. A significant issue of ON-GOING illegality and immorality that has tremendous impact on the lives of Palestinians living under Israeli aggression, oppression, theft, colonization, destruction and murder, and on the foreign policies of government in the region and halfway around the world? Absolutely.
Dear Eljay,
What can I say, we are just bad people.
That’s why we laugh when Syrian, Libyan and Iraqi people kill each other. That is what Zionists call entertainment.
And there are still a handful of “activists” talking about how Jews living 5 kilometers East of Jerusalem is the world’s biggest problem.
Jews living in illegally occupied, ethnically cleansed and stolen property, to be exact. If Jews were on the receiving end of it, you would be closer to it being “world’s biggest problem,” with more coverage on it than all the other news items you listed combined.