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Israeli Apartheid

The goldstone commission on Gaza

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The Goldstone Commission on Gaza 
 
 
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In Gaza, the idea of the Goldstone Commission was received with resignation.
 
By Shafiq Morton – Cape Town

When the most recent Goldstone Commission, appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council, announced its intentions to probe human rights violations and the possibility of war crimes during Israel’s 22-day invasion of Gaza, it did not exactly set the media on fire.

Nor did its lukewarm response in Israeli and Palestinian circles help much either, with Goldstone being described as a “passing cloud” by an Israeli spokesman, and Israel predictably refusing to recognize the commission.

Then there was the fact that Israel had already officially exonerated its forces in the invasion. It had contended there were no deliberate attacks on Palestinian civilians, and that there were only isolated mistakes leading to the deaths of 21 unarmed combatants.

How this fits in with the internationally-agreed death tally of about 1,400 Palestinians (with over 900 being unarmed civilians) is difficult to say. The BBC reports that ten Israeli soldiers (four by friendly fire) and three civilians died in the conflict.

In Gaza, the idea of the Goldstone Commission was received with resignation. Too many international commissions had come and gone in Gaza without promise, so was there really any reason to get excited about this one?

However, in the corridors of Israeli officialdom and the United States there was just enough edginess to hint that Goldstone was an influential enough figure to make the truth embarrassing. Indeed, if any legal figure had the prerequisite gravitas on Gaza, it had to be Justice Richard Goldstone.

He had not only played a pivotal role in the South African peace process via his commission on political violence in KwaZulu Natal (it had claimed thousands of lives) and his role in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but also as a Constitutional Court judge.

His progression to chief prosecutor at the UN International Criminal Tribunals in the Rwanda and Yugoslavia conflicts was seen by many as a natural step in his already illustrious career.

 

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