Goldstone won't seek Gaza report nullification

South African jurist Richard Goldstone said Tuesday that he did not plan to seek nullification of his highly critical UN report on Israel's 2008-2009 offensive in the Gaza Strip and asserted that claims to the contrary by Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai were false.

The 2009 Goldstone Report initially concluded that both Israel and Hamas had committed potential war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during three weeks of fighting. The findings that Israeli forces had intentionally fired at Palestinian civilians triggered outrage in Israel and a personal campaign against Goldstone, who is Jewish.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Goldstone said that Yishai had called him on Monday to thank him for an op-ed piece published Friday in The Washington Post in which the judge wrote that new information had come to light that made him rethink his central conclusions.

Goldstone said, however, that he never discussed the report with Yishai in the telephone conversation. Israeli leaders have called for the report to be retracted since it was issued in 2009.

"There was absolutely no discussion about the Goldstone report on the call," the jurist said in a telephone interview from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.

Goldstone said he thanked Yishai for calling and "stated that my concern was to work for truth, justice and human rights." Goldstone did confirm that Yishai had invited him to visit Israel and that he had accepted but would be unable to travel to the Jewish state until July.

"I ended the conversation by expressing my love for Israel," Goldstone said.

Report may be revisited

In the Post article, Goldstone lauded Israel for conducting dozens of investigations into alleged wrongdoing. In particular, he sighted evidence that a deadly strike that killed more than 20 members of a Palestinian family resulted from faulty intelligence and was not an intentional attack.

Nevertheless, Goldstone said, he did not intend to seek the report's nullification.

"As appears from the Washington Post article, information subsequent to publication of the report did meet with the view that one correction should be made with regard to intentionality on the part of Israel," the judge said.

"Further information as a result of domestic investigations could lead to further reconsideration, but as presently advised I have no reason to believe any part of the report needs to be reconsidered at this time."

Yishai told Israel's Army Radio station that he phoned Goldstone to express his appreciation for Goldstone's "courageous" reconsideration of his charges, and to invite him to tour Israel's southern communities that have sustained years of Palestinian rocket fire.

Yishai said Goldstone "as a Jew understands well the story of the Jewish people's suffering ... and it is very important for him to come and see this." The minister added that Goldstone promised him he would take additional steps to retract his UN report.

Also speaking on Army Radio, Danny Gillerman, a former Israeli ambassador to the UN who also participated in the phone call, quoted Goldstone as saying he was ready to take steps to change the status of the report, but first wanted to "wait for the dust to settle" following his op-ed article in the Post.

In addition, at least one member of Goldstone's mission to Gaza is also against annulling the report. Hina Jilani, a human rights lawyer, told the Middle East Monitor Tuesday that "ultimately, the UN Report would not have been any different to what it was".

"No process or acceptable procedure would invalidate the UN Report; if it does happen, it would be seen as a 'suspect move'," Jilani said.

She added that both Hamas and Israel had committed war crimes. "The UN cannot allow impunity to remain and will have to act if it wants to remain a credible international governing body," she said.

UN not nixing report

The Geneva-based Human Rights Council has said it will continue to treat the report as a legitimate working document. Spokesman Cedric Sapey told the AP on Monday that Goldstone would have to submit a formal request for the report to be withdrawn.

Last month, a majority of the council's 47 members voted to pass the report up to the General Assembly, recommending the powerful UN Security Council be asked to submit it to prosecutors at the International Criminal Court.

Such a move is unlikely to pass the Security Council, where Israel's strongest ally, the United States, has veto power. But the mere suggestion of bringing war crimes charges has infuriated Israel.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner had welcomed Goldstone's article that said he subsequently determined Israel had not intentionally attacked civilians.

"We've made clear from when the Goldstone Report was initially presented and maintained ever since that we didn't see any evidence that the Israeli government had intentionally targeted civilians or otherwise engaged in any war crimes; and now that we see that Justice Goldstone has reached the same conclusion," Toner said Monday.

"I can say that we remain concerned and we'll continue working to an end to what we believe is an anti-Israel bias in the Human Rights Council," Toner said.

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