3 January 2012 — PCHR – Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
8 April, 2011 — VTJP
News
International Middle East Media Center
Ten Palestinians Killed In Gaza Since Thursday
IMEMC – Friday April 08, 2011 – 14:38, Medical Sources in Gaza stated that the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli shells since Thursday arrived to ten. A woman and her daughter were the latest casualty until the time of this report.
6 April, 2011 — VTJP
News
International Middle East Media Center
Palestinian police charge former fighter with murder of Israeli peacemaker
IMEMC – Wednesday April 06, 2011 – 20:18, The police force of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank arrested a man Tuesday who was identified by eyewitnesses as the masked man who shot well-known Israeli-Palestinian peacemaker, actor and theatre director Juliano Meir-Khamis on Monday.
5 April, 2011 — VTJP
News
International Middle East Media Center
Palestinian Killed in Gaza Buffer Zone
IMEMC – Tuesday April 05, 2011 – 13:45, A Palestinian man has been killed in the buffer zone of the Gaza Strip, on Tuesday. The Israeli military has claimed that they shot the man as he was armed, and approaching the border, but Palestinian medical sources have stated that no weapon was found at the scene.
4 April, 2011 — Information Clearing House
Mounting Evidence of CIA Ties to Libyan Rebels
By Patrick Martin
The Libyan rebel military is not the independent organ of a popular uprising against the Gaddafi dictatorship, but rather the creature of American imperialism, the most reactionary political force on the planet.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27817.htm
4 April, 2011 — VTJP
News
International Middle East Media Center
UN Council: Will Not Retract Goldstone Report Due To Op-ed By Chief Investigator
IMEMC – Tuesday April 05, 2011 – 03:32, Richard Goldstone, the Chief Investigator of the UN Human Rights Council’s investigation into war crimes and violations by Israel and Hamas during Israel’s 2008-9 invasion of Gaza, created a diplomatic stir when he published an op-ed on Friday entitled “Reconsidering the Goldstone Report on Israeli War Crimes”.
2 April, 2011 — VTJP
News
International Middle East Media Center
Non-violent marches attacked in at least 4 Palestinian towns
IMEMC – Saturday April 02, 2011 – 14:49, Weekly non-violent anti-Wall protests in a number of towns across the West Bank on Friday, including Bil’in, Nil’in, al Ma’sara and Nabi Saleh, were attacked by Israeli forces wielding tear gas and other ‘less-than-lethal’ weapons. Three protesters were injured when they were hit by high velocity tear gas canisters fired at close range by Israeli soldiers.
28 January, 2011 — Mondoweiss
More vindication for Goldstone: British news reports Israeli soldiers were ordered to ‘cleanse’ Gaza neighborhoods during Cast Lead
“It sounds really terrible to say ‘cleanse’ but those were the orders.
– Israeli tank commander
* Israeli MP’s terror on aid ship
* Outlaws of the Mediterranean
* Robert Fisk: Western leaders are too cowardly to help save lives
* Israelis opened fire before boarding Gaza flotilla, say released activists
* Women in Black vigil: Jerusalem, 4 June 2010
* FT: Israel is lost at sea
* MK Hanin Zoabi: Israel wanted highest number of fatalities
* Hebrew University to Remove Judge Goldstone from its Board of Governors
* Free Gaza Calls for ‘Open, Independent’ Investigation Into Deadly Flotilla
Raid
* Mossad chief: Israel gradually becoming burden on US
1 June 2010 — Alternative Information Center (AIC)
Hebrew University of Jerusalem will remove Judge Goldstone from its Board of Governors, for the “technical” reason that he has not attended Board meetings. So reports the Hebrew-language news site nrg.co.il.
Substantial political pressure has been exerted by American and European donors on Hebrew University President Professor Menachem Ben Sasson and the university administration to remove Judge Goldstone following the report issued by the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, a mission which Goldstone led. The report, which outlined grave human rights violations by Israel in its December 2008- January 2009 military attack on the Gaza Strip, in addition to possible war crimes and crimes against humanity, was categorically rejected by the Israeli government, which commenced a campaign of vilification against Judge Goldstone.
The Hebrew University did not respond to a request by the Alternative Information Center (AIC) for clarification of why Judge Goldstone will be removed by its Board of Governors.
The Hebrew University has a long history of directly and indirectly supporting the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and dispossession of the Palestinian people. This support includes the confiscation of Palestinian lands; the hiring of former military and intelligence officials, including the former head of the General Security Services, Carmi Gilon, as Vice President for External Relations; financial support to student-soldiers who served during Israel’s military attacks on Gaza about which Judge Goldstone wrote; and demanding police-issued ‘character references” from Palestinian but not Jewish non-student visitors to its campuses.
The Alternative Information Center (AIC) calls on international solidarity activists to contact Hebrew University and express your support for the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, including an academic boycott, due to actions such as the removal of Judge Goldstone from the Board of Governors.
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem media department may be contacted here: http://www.huji.ac.il/cgi-bin/dovrut/dovrut_search_eng.pl?conct
25 May, 2010 — Ha’aretz
Those who are celebrating disclosures about Richard Goldstone’s relationship with apartheid-era South Africa ought to read a new book about Israel’s ties with that regime.
The “sexy” story of the nuclear dealings between Israel and South Africa, as told in a new book by Sasha Polakow-Suransky (“The Unspoken Alliance: Israel’s Secret Relationship With Apartheid South Africa” ), diverted attention from the book’s other revelations about the intimate relations between the Jewish state and the racist regime.
The author, a senior editor at the important journal “Foreign Affairs,” noted that Israel was not the only country to have violated the embargo on South Africa. Other members of this dubious club included several “enlightened” nations, among them Arab oil states. But with Israel, the relationship went far beyond security and economic interests and became a sturdy friendship.
24 May, 2010 – The Guardian
To rubbish the former judge’s report on Gaza, Israel has dredged up his record in South Africa – while forgetting its own
On 5 January 2009 the Israeli army rounded up around 65 Palestinians (including 11 women and 11 children under the age of 14) in Gaza, several of whom were waving white flags. After handcuffing the men and stripping them to their underwear, the soldiers marched their captives 2km north to al-Atatra and ordered them to climb into three pits, each three metres high and surrounded by barbed wire. The prisoners were forced to sit in stress positions, leaning forward with their heads down, and prohibited from talking to one another. On their first day they were denied food and water. On the second and third, each was given a sip of water and a single olive. On the fourth day the women and children were released and the men were transferred to military barracks.
23 May, 2010 — Counterpunch
Reut Institute Admits Critics Have Many Valid Points
While a report by an Israeli think tank has been widely condemned(1) for advocating that the Israeli government use its intelligence services to attack and sabotage non-violent human rights advocates, the report is worth detailed study because it is chock full of admissions of illegitimate features of the Israeli government it desperately seeks to protect.
The report, “Building a Political Firewall Against Israel’s Delegitimization,” is the product of a year of research by a team of Tel Aviv-based Reut Institute(2) investigators and includes contributions from more than 100 individuals in Israel, the United Kingdom, and the United States. While the Israeli government did not commission the report, Reut officials gave a PowerPoint presentation, “The Challenge of Delegitimacy to Israel’s National Security,” to the Israeli Cabinet in February 2010 and to a large conference of Israeli government officials in March 2010.
The report describes the “new strategic threat” created by the human rights activists’ “fundamental delegitimization” of the Israeli government.
8 March, 2010
The European Parliament is due to vote on its attitude to the Goldstone Report on March 10.
Please URGENTLY email your MEPs – if possible by the end of today. Use http://www.writetothem.com to email all your MEPs directly. Remind them of Justice Goldstone’s words in his report to the UN – every time a report is published and no action follows, this ’emboldens Israel and her conviction of being untouchable’.
Please ask your MEPs to support the:
1. Immediate and full implementation of the Goldstone Report, and demand accountability for all violations of international law committed by Israel in its war on Gaza;
2. Unconditional, immediate and sustained opening of the crossings into Gaza, including from the sea. Official visitors from EU countries, including the new High Representative Catherine Ashton, should routinely include Gaza when visiting the region, to see the devastating effects of the two and a half year old blockade of Gaza and Operation Cast Lead;
3. Removal of Hamas from the EU terrorist list. Ex-US President Jimmy Carter asked President Obama in 2009 to remove Hamas from the US’ terrorist list. Palestinians elected their parliamentary representatives in elections declared free and fair by the international observers. The collective punishment of 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza, which was severely tightened after the parliamentary election, is inhumane and illegal and must end;
4. Ending of the Israeli government’s obstruction of the work of Human Rights organisations and NGOs in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Further information:
1. The resolutions tabled so far are at http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sed/agenda.do?offLang=en&sessionDate=20100310
2. The Goldstone report found that Israel had employed a policy that involved ‘the direct targeting and arbitrary killing of Palestinian civilians; that Israel had used weapons proscribed by international law; that the Israeli military carried out a ‘deliberate and sustained’ attack upon civilian targets such as private homes, food installations and water treatment works; and that ‘the Mission is of the view that some of the actions of the Government of Israel might justify a competent court finding that crimes against humanity have been committed’ in Israel’s continued implementation of a blockade upon Gaza.
The Goldstone report also noted ‘that the international community has been largely silent and has to date failed to act to ensure the protection of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip and generally the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Suffice it to notice the lack of adequate reaction to the blockade and its consequences, to the Gaza military operations and, in their aftermath, to the continuing obstacles for reconstruction’.
For the text of the Goldstone Report, visit http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/specialsession/9/docs/UNFFMGC_Report.pdf
7 December, 2009 — Palestine Solidarity Campaign
One year since Israel launched Operation Cast Lead, raining bombs on 1.5 million Palestinians, killing over 1400 and wounding over 5,000, the Israeli government has tightened its blockade on Gaza, creating a dire humanitarian disaster. Appallingly, the British government abstained on the votes at the UN on the Goldstone Report, which called for an end to the blockade, and for war criminals to be brought to justice.
Please sign the petition here www.iparl.com/petition-psc calling on the British government to implement the Goldstone Report – we will be presenting the petition to Gordon Brown in January.
To follow the Convoy to Gaza
Live map of the route: readingpsc.org.uk/convoy/
On Facebook: www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2364855944&ref=ts
Twitter: twitter.com/Pal_S_Campaign
Read the messages of support: www.palestinecampaign.org/Index5bwide.asp?m_id=1&l1_id=79&l2_id=86
Video of the send-off Sunday 6 December: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gydu9jhFksM
One year since the Beginning of the Attacks on Gaza
Protest Outside the Israeli Embassy
End the Siege on Gaza
Sunday 27 December 2009 – 3pm
High Street Kensington, W8, London (High St Kensington Underground)
Called by PSC, BMI, CND and STW
Supported by: Amos Trust, Communication Workers Union, Fire Brigades Union, Friends of Al Aqsa, Friends of Lebanon, Greater London UNISON, The Green Party, ICAHD UK, Jewish Socialists’ Group, Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East, Palestinian Return Centre, The Peace Cycle, Public and Commercial Services Union, Thompsons Solicitors.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) aims to raise public awareness about the occupation of Palestine and the struggle of the Palestinian people. PSC seek to bring pressure on both the British and Israeli government to bring their policies in line with international law. PSC is an independent, non-governmental and non-party political organisation with members from communities across the UK. Join PSC today!
Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Box BM PSA
London
WC1N 3XX
Tel: 020 7700 6192
Fax: 020 7609 7779
Email: info@palestinecampaign.org
Web: www.palestinecampaign.org
5 November, 2009 — Huffington Post
London – The Jerusalem Post recently quoted Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the US, as lamenting the “tactical” problem of Israel being unable to defend itself without facing prosecution. He added that “no one in Israel buys” that the Israeli military targeted civilians during Operation Cast Lead last winter.” It goes not just against all of our principles, but the personal knowledge of people who participated in the operation,” he said, adding that he was speaking from personal experience.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, human rights campaigners and lawyers working in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have been collecting evidence of serious human rights violations by Israel’s military for many years. Some of those violations appear to amount to grave breaches (i.e. war crimes) contrary to the Fourth Geneva Convention 1949, which protects civilians living under military occupation. After many years of placing the evidence of such war crimes before the Israeli legal system and attempting to seek justice locally, Palestinian victims have lost any faith in the Israeli legal system.
3 November 2009 — Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
Adalah – Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel * Addameer * Al Dameer Association for Human Rights * Al-Haq – Law in the Service of Man * Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights * Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights * Defence for Children International-Palestine Section * Ensan Center for Human Rights and Democracy * Jerusalem Legal Aid Center * Palestinian Centre for Human Rights * Ramallah Center for Human Rights Studies * Women’s Center for Legal Aid and Counselling
On 4 November 2009, the Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict (Goldstone Report) is scheduled to be tabled before the Plenary of the UN General Assembly in New York. Following the Report’s endorsement at the Human Rights Council on 21 October 2009, it now falls to the General Assembly to ensure that the Report is endorsed and its recommendations acted upon. The General Assembly must promote and support the primacy of international law in the necessity of ensuring justice and accountability for the war crimes and possible crimes against humanity that characterized Israel’s assault on Gaza in December 2008-Janurary 2009.
The Palestinian human rights community fully endorse the Report and urge the General Assembly to adopt each of its recommendations. We are calling for the GA to:
a) fully endorse the Report of the Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict;
b) urge the Security Council to endorse the Report, and to expeditiously pursue all accountability mechanisms presented therein; and report to the GA on the progress in this matter;
c) demand that credible internal domestic investigations and prosecutions be carried out by the parties to the conflict in accordance with international standards of impartiality, independence, promptness and effectiveness;
d) remain fully appraised of the matter until appropriate action is taken at the domestic or international level in order to ensure justice for victims and accountability for perpetrators;
e) establish an escrow fund for the purpose of compensating the victims of violations of international law committed during Operation Cast Lead;
f) request Switzerland to convene a conference of the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions to ensure its respect;
g) promote an urgent discussion on the use of munitions such as white phosphorous (as mentioned in the Report), and a moratorium on their use by Israel.
It is no less crucial that over the coming weeks and months, given the statements from several of the Permanent Member States of the Security Council that they will oppose consideration of the Report in that forum, that the issue be pursued by all appropriate international mechanisms and UN Bodies. Should the Security Council fail to ensure accountability as demanded in the Report, and by the victims, the GA should prepare for further action. The focus of the General Assembly and of the Security Council must at all times be on ensuring accountability for the crimes documented in the Goldstone Report.
The Palestinian Authority and Palestinian Liberation Organisation, as the representatives of the Palestinian people, must also strive to ensure full implementation of the Report. Palestinian advocacy and activism at the General Assembly is crucial in ensuring that lessons are learned from recent experiences which saw international legal obligations sidelined in favour of political expediency.
The international community of States, along with civil society, and the general public must stand firm and united in upholding the conviction that both State and non-state actors must respect international human rights and humanitarian law; that there is no peace and security without justice; and that accountability for violations of international law is fundamental.
30 October, 2009 — Huffington Post
We Jews should be very proud of Richard Goldstone. In an ancient tradition of Jewish self-questioning and uncomfortable truth-telling, the author of the recent report from the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict has braved personal vilification and institutional mendacity to describe the crimes committed by Israeli forces in the course of their invasion of Gaza in December 2008.
To be sure, the Goldstone Report also itemizes the crimes of Hamas, notably in its campaign of rocket-firing into Israel. But the scale of human rights abuses by Israel vastly outdoes anything Hamas could hope to have achieved: Israeli civilian victims of Hamas rocket attacks numbered less than ten. The attack on Gaza by the IDF resulted in at least 1,100 Palestinian civilian deaths. The major perpetrator of human rights abuses in this conflict is without question the State of Israel, and Justice Goldstone records as much.
That the Israel of Benjamin Netanyahu has chosen to conduct an international campaign against Justice Goldstone and his report need not surprise us. Israel refused to cooperate with the UN investigation; long before its conclusions were published, Netanyahu had set in motion a campaign to deny and denigrate them. More dispiriting, and of greater political consequence, is the pitiful and humiliating response of the Obama Administration. The “fierce urgency of now” apparently required that Washington join Tel Aviv in discrediting the Goldstone Report, and with it the UN inquiry. This response is of course in keeping with America’s long-standing determination to protect Israel against the consequences of its actions at home and abroad; but the universal international condemnation of the destruction of Gaza renders the Obama Administration’s response peculiarly self-defeating — everyone knows what happened in Gaza, so Washington’s collusion in covering it up merely draws further attention to the discrediting of U.S. foreign policy and moral standing brought about by our unhealthy relationship with Israel.
There is a special irony to the public slandering of Justice Goldstone now under way. In the first place he is not only Jewish but has close family links to Israel and the Zionist ideal. Secondly, Richard Goldstone has an impeccable resumé as a critic of racism, prejudice and repression — most notably as an active opponent for many years of the apartheid regime in his native South Africa. During the ‘90s he served as Chief Prosecutor at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunals dealing with human rights abuses, crimes and genocide in the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda. It would be hard to fictionalize a more convincing biography for an engaged and ethically uncompromising jurist in the great tradition of Jewish political activism. Goldstone’s standing in the world will only rise as a consequence of Israel’s short-sighted attempts to discredit the man, the report and the facts. That our own government has chosen to join in this unworthy exercise should be a source of deep embarrassment and shame.
Please join me and Jews from all over the world in signing the Jewish Appeal Letter in Support of the Goldstone Report written by Jews Say No an organization in NY. Go to: http://www.petitiononline.com/UNreport/petition.html
Tony Judt is the author or editor of thirteen books, most recently Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten Twentieth Century. Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tony-judt/justice-goldstone-and-the_b_339077.h
29 October, 2009 — Harpers
Desmond Travers was one of the four members of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, which produced the controversial Goldstone Report.
Travers is a retired Colonel of the Army of the Irish Defence Forces. His last appointment was as Commandant of its Military College. He also served in command of troops with various UN and EU peace support missions. I recently spoke to Travers by phone about the report. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q1. Were you surprised by the criticism of the report?
A. There was a lot of criticism even before the report came out, primarily against individuals, especially Justice Richard Goldstone. So we were not unduly surprised by the whinging when the report was released, except for the intensity and viciousness of the personal attacks. Justice Goldstone has publicly invited the critics, especially within the U.S. government, to come forward with substantive evidence of incorrect or inaccurate statements. But there has been no credible criticism of the report itself or of the information elucidated in it.
Q2. Douglas Griffiths, the American delegate to the Human Rights Council, said, “While Justice Goldstone acknowledged Hamas’s crimes, in examining Israel’s response sufficient weight was not given to the difficulties faced in fighting this kind of enemy in this environment.” Is that a fair criticism?
The New Dark Age 