No, Prof. Dershowitz, Tell Us What You Really Think of Richard Goldstone

Alan Dershowitz has never been shy to express his views, but I think he may be going a bit far here in reaction to recent stories about Judge Richard Goldstone’s service to the Apartheid regime in South Africa.

Goldstone was–quite literally–a hanging judge. He imposed and affirmed death sentences for more than two dozen blacks under circumstances where whites would almost certainly have escaped the noose. And he affirmed sentences of physical torture–euphemistically called “flogging”– for other blacks. He also enforced miscegenation and other racist laws with nary a word of criticism or dissent. He was an important part of the machinery of death, torture and racial subjugation that characterized Apartheid South Africa. His robe and gavel lent an air of legitimacy to an entirely illegitimate and barbaric regime.

It is no surprise that Goldstone kept this part of his life secret from academic colleagues, friends and the general public. I recall him at the lunch and dinner tables in Cambridge describing himself as a heroic part of the struggle against Apartheid.  Now it turns out he was the ugly face of Apartheid, covering its sins and crimes with a judicial robe. How differently we would have looked at him if we knew that he had climbed the judicial ladder on whipped backs and hanged bodies.

Dershowitz then goes on:

Goldstone  is an ambitious opportunist who lacks the courage of his convictions– if he ever had any. He has always put personal advancement over principle. He is a master of rationalization and self justification. This time he has run out of excuses. He’s been exposed as a poseur who will sell his integrity for a careerist opportunity. Fortunately he now has little integrity left to sell.

Yikes!  This is way, way over the top, especially on the integrity part. I don’t think there is any evidence Goldstone tried to hide any of this.

On the other hand, buried beneath the outrage is a very good point. Goldstone, like many other white South Africans, was complicit in aspects of the Apartheid regime.  This doesn’t necessarily make him a bad person, but it is certainly a difficult, morally ambiguous situation. And many of Goldstone’s defenders are they type who wouldn’t see this as a difficult, morally ambiguous situation.  Rather, they would think of an Alien Tort Statute lawsuit.  Luckily, those folks are Judge Goldstone’s friends…