Change in Goldstone Report

 Recently Judge Richard Goldstone of South Africa has retracted an important part of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, otherwise called the Goldstone Report. 

For those that aren't aware, in April of 2009, after the Israeli IDF invaded the Palestinian Gaza Strip which killed around 1,400 people, the United Nations wanted to investigate the conflict for possible war crimes and crimes against humanity. The team was led and the report written by a famous South African Judge, Richard Goldstone. 

When released, the highly anticipated report accused both the Israel Defense Force and the Palestinian Militants (mostly Hamas) of war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity. It recommended that both sides investigate their conduct; if they failed to do so, they would bring up the allegations to the International Criminal Court. Both sides initially denounced the report, however Hamas began to embrace it along with much of the Arab world. The Report also found major support in all those who opposed Israel's Operation Cast Lead (including myself). The Final Report to the UN  found that Israel conducted major internal investigations and Hamas none at all. 

The UN supported the report and especially the allegations that Israel "intentionally targeted Palestinian civilians"  during the battle. As of a few days ago, Richard Goldstone seems to show doubt about the allegations. 

In the Washington Post, the judge has now reconsidered the most pointed of accusations saying that Israel did not in fact, intentionally target civilians. Stating in the piece that their incorrect conclusion was a direct result of the Israeli government's refusal to participate in the fact finding mission.

Although I never condone such horrible killings of more than a thousand people and have talked about the Wiser Palestinian Fight, the change is a vital one. More often than not, I find myself standing directly against Israeli policy, be it their internal racist laws or their oppressive policies toward the Palestinians (under the guise of security), however, I can not push aside reason to blindly accuse them of intentionally killing civilians.

The deaths are surely tragic and Israeli policy surely negligent in killing so many. For that, the report doesn't retract its claims, however, Israel moves from a murderous nation intentionally killing civilians to a bumbling fool who kills A LOT of people in order to kill a few others here and there (militants). It is certainly no reason for celebration on Israel's side, and the report can still stand on its own (though they are pushing that the UN retract its support for it), however, we can not continue to attack it for purposefully killing the civilians.  With this in mind, I still stand against it's Operation Cast Lead because it led to the deaths of thousands of people, mostly civilians with little added benefit to the state or security. The call to war is becoming too redundant in the region and it leads to too many innocent lives lost. Israel nor Palestine gain more than they lose from these battles.

I'm glad the truth has come out, and let's pray for a Palestinian state this September.

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