Israel Might Discuss Goldstone Report

Wednesday October 21, 2009 00:50 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

The Israeli security-diplomatic cabinet is planning to convene on Tuesday to decide whether Israel should look into the report of Judge Richard Goldstone on Gaza war.

The Israeli stance, which initially rejected any talks on the report, came after the UN Human Rights Council endorsed it last week.

Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, said that discussing the report should not harm the investigations currently carried out by the Israeli Army and security officials.

The Israeli Justice and Foreign Ministries said that probing the Goldstone report would help Israel in countering it.

Israeli daily, Haaretz, said that the Foreign Ministry intends to present a plan for diplomatic moves against the report during the Tuesday meeting.

The report of South African jurist, Richard Goldstone, states that Israel and the Hamas movement committed war crimes during the war.

After Israel totally rejected the report, its western allies advised it to look into it and launch an investigation.

Hamas showed full cooperation with the investigators lead by Goldstone, while Israel refused to cooperate and claimed that its army’s investigation revealed that Israel acted within the international law.

On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said that Israel is acting on making sure that the report is vetoed at the UN General Assembly, Haaretz said.

Haaretz added that former Israeli ambassador to Germany, Avi Primor, said in an interview German Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung, that Israel made a mistake when it decided not to cooperate with Judge Goldstone.

He added that while people can speak against the report, it should not be ignored.

But he also said that Israel would have welcomed Goldstone and would have cooperated with him “if he tried to be balanced”.

gaza strip | israeli politics | news report saed at imemc dot org