3rd Anniversary: Goldstone Report Hits Dead-Ends, But Far From Dead
Jan 13 2012
Yesterday marked the third anniversary of the notorious UN Human Rights Council session that created the Goldstone Report, a 500-page document that excoriated Israel—for defending itself from deadly rockets—while exonerating Hamas.

The core charges of the report—that Israel's leadership intentionally plotted to murder Palestinian civilians, and did so from racist motives—were famously retracted by Judge Goldstone in op-eds published last year in the Washington Post and the New York Times.

Overnight, anti-Israel intellectuals who had hailed Goldstone as a modern-day saint turned on him with a vengeance, especially those uneasy with their Jewish ancestry, such as Roger Cohen, Richard Falk and William Schabas.

The trajectory of the Goldstone Report as a weapon against Israel has now hit several diplomatic and legal dead ends. Nevertheless, the UN document will continue to be used against Israel in politically-motivated prosecution campaigns.

The International Criminal Court recently reported to the UN that it is considering a Palestinian request to prosecute Israelis, along with "400 communications on crimes allegedly committed in Palestine." If the ICC eventually does act against Israel over its last war with Hamas, the Goldstone Report will surely serve as Exhibit A.

Key Documents Exposing Perfidy of Goldstone Report:
Trevor Norwitz, Letter to Richard Goldstone
Alan Dershowitz, The Case Against the Goldstone Report: A Study in Evidentiary Bias
UN Watch, Legal Brief to Disqualify Goldstone Commissioner Christine Chinkin for Bias
NGO Monitor, The Goldstone Report Reconsidered: A Critical Analysis