Rocket victim: Goldstone a hypocrite
Dr. Mirela Siderer, who was badly injured by Grad in Ashkelon mall, says she would never have testified in front of South African judge had she known about 'cruel decisions' he made under Apartheid regime
When Dr. Mirela Siderer picked up Yedioth Ahronoth's "7 Days" supplement on Friday, she saw on its cover the judge she had tried to convince that Israel did not commit war crimes in Gaza.
"Had I known who this man was," she says, "I would never have gone to testify."
Dr. Siderer, a gynecologist from the southern city of Ashkelon, was severely injured when a Grad rocket hit a local mall. When Judge Richard Goldstone was appointed to investigate the Israel Defense Forces' activity in the Gaza Strip during Operation Cast Lead, Dr. Siderer was one of the only people to testify in favor of Israel.
She flew to Geneva and spent hours telling her story and the story of southern Israel's rocket-stricken residents to the Goldstone committee. But in the final report released by committee, she was mentioned in only four lines.
After reading the Yedioth Ahronoth investigation, which revealed Goldstone's dark past as a South African judge under the Apartheid regime, she felt relieved.
"A year ago I met a friend," she recalls. "He had lived in South Africa for many years and had heard about Goldstone's actions. He told me, 'One day the world will know about the cruel decisions he was responsible for.' Today I know what he was talking about."
Dr. Siderer is angry. "Goldstone is a hypocrite. I am simply speechless," she says. "Today we know that he is in no way neutral, that his hands are not clean. I was amazed."
