14 Sep The Inevitable Attack on the Goldstone Commission
Although often critical of Israel, I have always been sympathetic to Israeli claims that the UN Human Rights Council has deliberately appointed individuals to investigate conditions in the Palestinian territories who were either actually biased against Israel or who at least could not avoid the appearance of bias. I was completely opposed, for example, to the HRC’s decision to appoint Richard Falk a Special Rapporteur on “the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.”
The Goldstone Commission, however, is a different kettle of fish entirely. Justice Goldstone is, to put it mildly, one of the most eminent international lawyers in the world — a judge for nine years on the Constitutional Court of South Africa; the first Chief Prosecutor of the ad hoc Tribunals; a member of the international panel appointed by Argentina to investigate Nazi activity in the country since 1938; the chairperson of the international inquiry into Kosovo; and so on. He is also Jewish and a trustee of Hebrew University in Israel. So it is difficult to plausibly maintain that he is biased against Israel — particularly given that one of his first acts after being appointed by the HRC to investigate Operation Cast Lead was to publicly announce that he would not abide by HRC Res. S-9/1‘s indefensible request to limit the fact-finding mission to Israel’s war crimes, but would investigate Hamas’s war crimes, as well.
Unfortunately, that hasn’t stopped the Israeli government and groups that reject any and all criticism of Israel from attacking the Goldstone Commission:
Some 50 British and Canadian lawyers have signed a public letter protesting the presence of London School of Economics professor Christine Chinkin on the commission. The letter said her participation “necessarily compromises the integrity of this inquiry and its report.”
Chinkin signed a public letter in January that called Israel’s actions “war crimes.” This disqualified her from participating in an international panel investigating whether Israel had, in fact, committed war crimes, the lawyers contended.
Goldstone has rejected calls for Chinkin to step down.
“The letter in question also condemned the firing of rockets by Hamas into Israel and suicide bombings, which it said were also war crimes,” he noted in an interview with The Jerusalem Post in July.
[snip]
Beyond the question of Chinkin’s membership in the four-person panel, the Israeli government has said it views the commission as a fig leaf for an anti-Israel campaign in the Human Rights Council.
The commission’s conclusions were decided ahead of time and were intended to offer legal grounds for an international effort to sue Israeli officials in the International Criminal Court, officials have repeatedly complained in recent weeks.
These are tired and predictable attacks. Apparently, only individuals who have never publicly expressed an opinion on Israel and Hamas are entitled to investigate the situation in Gaza; criticizing both sides, as Chinkin has done — you can read the letter in question here — disqualifies you as being anti-Israel. (Because, of course, the only “unbiased” position is one that assumes that Israel never does anything wrong.) The hypocrisy is self-evident: we all know that the Israeli government and the lawyers mentioned above would have had no problem with Chinkin if she had only criticized Hamas.
The attacks on Justice Goldstone himself, however, are even more disturbing. UN Watch, a right-wing NGO, isn’t shy about expressing its disdain for him: “no one has ever disputed that the Arab-controlled Human Rights Council deliberately selected individuals who had made up their mind well in advance — not only that Israel was guilty, but that a democratic state with an imperfect but respected legal system should be considered the same as, or worse than, a terrorist group.” Their evidence for Justice Goldstone having already decided, despite his history and his reputation, that Israel is guilty and is no better than Hamas? Precisely none.
Not that those who are attacking the Goldstone Commission care. Their goal is to discredit the Commission at any cost, not to understand what actually happened in Gaza. If doing so requires them to impugn the integrity of one of the world’s most respected human-rights defenders, that is a price they are more than willing to pay.
ADDENDUM: It is incredibly revealing that NGO Monitor’s tendentious attack on the Goldstone Commission mentions that Justice Goldstone was a member of Human Rights Watch — and nothing else about his personal history.
I’m glad you linked to the letter. While the letter is hardly the worst anti-Israeli piece out there, it displays its bias quite prominently.
One particular example of its bias and false portrayal of IL is in the 3rd paragraph. Wherein, the author’s argue that Israel’s response was illegal (and a warcrime) because the causalties caused by Israel were not “commensurate” to the Israeli causalties from the Hamas rocket fire. Proportionality does not reach so far.
Heck, the US and its allies have probably killed many more Afghan citizens than people lost during 9-11. I guess we’re all committing war crimes now.
HLS, You need to distinuish between proportionality in terms of the jus ad bellum and proportionality in terms of the jus in bello. The letter does not claim that Israel committed war crimes because the number of Israelis killed was dwarfed by the number of Palestinians killed; it argues that the proportionality between the two is relevant to whether Israel was genuinely acting in self-defence, as permitted by Article 51 of the UN Charter. (Here, let me note, I agree with Marko Milanovic that the Article 51 criticism of Israel is a red herring, because the use of force provisions in the Charter, to which Article 51 is an exception, only apply between States.) The title of the letter implies that the authors believe that Israel’s attacks are war crimes. If so, it seems clear that they are basing that conclusion on traditional notions of proportionality in armed conflict: attacks that cause civilian damage that is disproportionate to to the expected military advantage are war crimes. (It is very unlikely, to say the least, that Cherif Bassiouni, one of the world’s leading ICL scholars, doesn’t know the difference between the two kinds of proportionality.) Note, though, that the text of… Read more »
Kevin, I have gone through all the public hearing testimony and your analysis is way off base. The Goldstone Commission is not about finding “what actually happened” Gaza: 1. The one-sided mandate impletented by the HRC was never amended to cover both sides. Goldstone doesn’t have the authority to amend it. A similar scenario occurred with the HRC’s investigation on the 2006 Lebanon War. When the Commission at issue tried to submit evidence regarding Hezbollah, it was rejected b/c the official mandate was to only cover Israel. 2. The Commission’s work is in violation of several provisions of the International Bar Association’s London-Lund Guidelines regarding Fact-finding inquiries — won’t go into specifics but they are linked in the article currently on our homepage. 3. There is no transparency. Officials of the Commission and Goldstone made personal assurances (to myself and in correspondence I saw) that all submissions to the Commission would be posted on its webpage. As of yesterday, that has not happened. Why do they refuse to publicly release these documents? 3. The Commission cherry picked witnesses to publicly testify and chose the most “shocking” or “emotive” stories (3 days for the Palestinian side, 1 for Israel). The Commission has… Read more »
The only knee-jerk attacks are the ones launched at Justice Goldstone by the Israeli government, UN Watch, and NGO Monitor — attacks that began long before he ever set foot in Gaza. What a surprise that, having predetermined that Justice Goldstone was biased against Israel — based on nothing other than the HRC’s ridiculously one-sided resolution — you now conclude that, in fact, your original assumption was right.
I do, however, appreciate the clever rhetorical move that is behind much of the criticism of the Goldstone Commission: Commission seeks cooperation from Israel and the Palestinians; Israel refuses to cooperate; the Goldstone Commission is biased and invalid because it didn’t involve Israel. Joseph Heller — whom I should identify as a distant cousin, lest Bernstein accuse me of unethically concealing a conflict of interest — would be proud.
Kevin,
You still have not addressed any of the substantive points I raised regarding potential improprieties with the Commission.
Anne
PS I hope your readers will consider my comments, read our article http://www.ngo-monitor.org/digest_info.php?id=2636, and judge for themselves.
By the way, I agree that Justice Goldstone’s former association with HRW is relevant to his credibility. As is the fact that he is Jewish, a trustee of Hebrew University, and was a judge for nine years on the Constitutional Court of South Africa, the first Chief Prosecutor of the ad hoc Tribunals, a member of the international panel appointed by Argentina to investigate Nazi activity in the country since 1938, and the chairperson of the international inquiry into Kosovo.
If you actually cared about allowing your readership to make an intelligent and informed decision about whether Justice Goldstone is biased against Israel, you would have mentioned all of those things — not just the one fact that (at least in your view) cuts against his impartiality. I think we both know why you didn’t.
I am on the record calling Goldstone a well-respected Jurist (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1244371044134&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull).
The other qualifications you mention are irrelevant as to whether he is personally biased regarding this case — are you seriously contending that someone’s religion is proof of objectivity? And what does his serving as the ICTY prosecutor have to do with his personal views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? — and whether the Commission has engaged in potential irregularities conducting its inquiry.
As I am not privy to Goldstone’s inner thoughts, I can only look at what is in front of me — the mandate of the Commission, its members, and how it has conducted its investigation to date.
PS Irwin Kotler’s take:
Part I:
http://tinyurl.com/qhx6cz
Part II
http://tinyurl.com/pr46sl
Goldstone’s association with HRW, relevant. Everything else in his personal history, irrelevant. Priceless! Note, by the way, Herzberg’s rather unusual — to say the least — understanding of relevance. In her view, everything that makes it less likely that Justice Goldstone is biased against Israel is irrelevant because it is not “proof” of his objectivity. But, of course, a fact does not have to “prove” anything in order to be relevant; it simply needs to make a material fact — here, whether Justice Goldstone is anti-Israel — more or less likely. And unless you are completely blinded by ideology, it is patently obvious that a Jew is less likely to be anti-Israel than a non-Jew; a trustee of an Israeli university is less likely to be anti-Israel than someone who isn’t a trustee of an Israeli university; an individual appointed by a State to investigate Nazi activity is less likely to be anti-Israel than someone who was never so appointed; and so on. Do those facts prove that Justice Goldstone is not anti-Israel? Of course not — it only makes it much more likely that he isn’t. Just as his former association with HRW doesn’t prove that he is anti-Israel;… Read more »
Anne and I agree on one thing: readers really should read the report for themselves. But they need to be aware that NGO Monitor doesn’t even pretend to present both sides of the argument — as their unbelievably selective presentation of Justice Goldstone’s biography demonstrates.
Just a couple additional points and then I’ll stop:
1. We report on NGOs and NGO connections — information that is generally omitted in media/gov’t accounts and unknown to the public.
2. Goldstone defended HRW against criticisms of Israel bias in an oped he published during the 2006 Lebanon War — so I think that is quite a bit more relevant to what is at issue here. The UN and others (including yourself) have set forth Goldstone’s professional qualifications ad nauseum.
If, however, you have information that in his other professional capacities he expressed opinions regarding the role of NGOs in the Arab-Israeli conflict, the role of NGOs at the UN, or even the role of NGOs in general, I would be more than happy to learn about it.
It seems to me that ANY criticism of Israeli is in fact either ‘bias against Israel” or “anti-Semitic. Justice Goldstein was spared that second label simply because he is Jewish. Forever the perpetual victim, Israel and its supporters quickly and unethically move to discredit its critics who would disagree with its self proclaimed status as this “perpetual victim. Despite the fact this “victim’ attacks Gaza destroying it and kills hundreds of innocent civilians, continues occupies Arab land, build illegal settlements including in occupied Jerusalem, imprisons 12000 Palestinians and tortures them, wages war against other Arab countries, conduct air raids against Syria, Sudan, Iraq, Tunisia, and now talks about attacking Iran. Is Israel still within the realm of international law after all of this, and when it behaves like and in fact is “an outlaw”
Save your breath, people, NGO monitor is not worth it. Their supposed “objectivity” is an AIPAC-like joke, and I suppose at the end of the day no one takes them seriously. Alan Derzowitz should head the Goldstone Commission, right?
The sad thing is, they will do anything to undermine the rule of international law in Israel, and somehow I do not see how it would possibly benefit Israel or its people in the future.
Kevin, allow me to respectfully disagree with you that Human Rights watch is an “Arab-controlled” this is the first time I hear this notion given that HRW has often and repeatedly criticized Arab government behavior and their systematic abuse of their citizens.
On the notion that Israel has a “respected legal system” perhaps this is true for Jews only. Israel’s legal system allows the torture of Palestinians, holds them without trial, jails them on made-up evidence and allows confessions made up in Hebrew by Palestinians who neither speak nor write Hebrew.
Hamas is perhaps a terrorist organization under the US law. But not so outside the US and some European countries. I always wonder what the Palestinians are suppose to do when they see their land is stolen away from them in broad daylight, and their homes demolished with the permission of the same legal system that you mentioned that it is “ respected” are they suppose to petition the Israeli courts to lift Israeli’s occupation of their land, or should they send a letter to the editor in protest!
Ali,
I did not say — and would never say — HRW is Arab-controlled. I think you are confusing me with Herzberg.
I should add, though, that there is absolutely no justification — none — for Hamas launching rockets at Israeli civilians. Regardless of whether Hamas is a terrorist organization, those are acts of terrorism.
There may be no summary judgment in criminal law, but in normal conversation we can kind of act like there is — we can fairly say that, when nobody is disputing the facts and they lead to clear legal conclusions, it is not a manifestation of bias to state that conclusion. And we can say that’s distinct from stating a legal conclusion in parallel situations where the facts are very much in dispute. Hamas’ rocket attacks aimed at Israel are war crimes on face. I do not believe there is any real dispute over the pertinent facts (that is, Hamas doesn’t deny firing off the rockets or claim that it distinguishes between civilian and military targets), and while Hamas often makes conclusory statements as to their attacks’ legality, they are not undergirded by any remotely accepted legal theory that I know of. Hence, it is perfectly reasonable to condemn them as war crimes on face, prior to the investigation. Indeed, I imagine this is why sometimes human rights NGOs spend so little time on Palestinian human rights violations — they don’t need any “investigation”, as nearly all the facts are laid out in front of us and present quite easy… Read more »
My question is what is the current definition of reciprocity? It seems like it has changed over the last 20 years. If we look back to the original NATO action in attempting to protect the citizens of Sarajevo, the UN allowed reciprocal attacks on the Bosnian Serbs by NATO – but under very tights rules. That is, if one tank was shelling Sarajevo, NATO could respond by returning fire on one and only one Bosnian Serb tank, and that was required to be the exact same tank that was firing into Sarajevo. Oh, in addition they had to get permission from the UN in each instance to return that fire. Now considering that the fastest that permission ever came down was in 4 hours, it is needless to say that that specific tank was long gone. If we look at the UN troops that were in Rwanda under a Chapter VII mission, they were similarly restricted by the UN to reciprocate on any attacks on them. Let’s now fast forward to today. If we use the UN rules and definitions of the 1990s, then both the US and Israel would have a lot of issues that they would be dealing… Read more »
[…] Heller blogs about the inevitable attacks on the Goldstone Commission, and the Goldstone-bashers respond in the […]
My apologies to Kevin on the mix up. I also want to add my voice to Dan S on the need to have standard and clear definitions of reciprocity.
It is also worth mentioning that there are no military areas or civilian areas in Gaza. This is an area about 100 miles long and 5-12 miles wide packed with 1.5 million people surrounded by a wall and an Israel Army from land and the Israeli navy from the sea.
[…] Finalized (Summary) Report (Full Text) | Press Release (UNHCHR) | Article (Opinio Juris) | Article (Opinio Juris) | Article (JPost) | Article (Haaretz) […]
[…] Chief Prosecutor for both the Yugoslav and Rwandan International Criminal Tribunals. Goldstone, one of the most eminent international lawyers in the world and trustee of Hebrew University in Israe…, is almost unanimously viewed as a fair an impartial choice to have lead the mission, an important […]
Goldstone’s critique of both sides only serves as a platform to attack Israel. For example, he admits that Israel suffered under incessant rocket fire – only to accuse Jews of not building enough rocket shelters for Negev Bedouins. We presented many other inconsistencies in a rebuttal here