Goldstone says he won't seek Gaza report nullification

South African judge Richard Goldstone said yesterday that he did not plan to seek nullification of his highly critical United Nations report on Israel's 2008-2009 offensive in the Gaza Strip and said 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.

Goldstone said Yishai had called to thank him for an op-ed piece in the Washington Post at the weekend in which the judge said new information had come to light making him rethink his central conclusions.

But Goldstone said 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 judge said.

Yishai spokesman Roi Lachmanovitch said yesterday that the minister "didn't speak with the required clarity". Lachmanovitch said Yishai had told Goldstone that if he had toured southern Israel and seen the suffering there, "then this report would not have been written".


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.


In the Post article, Goldstone lauded Israel for conducting dozens of investigations into alleged wrongdoing. In particular, he cited 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 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 that he phoned Goldstone to express his appreciation for the judge'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".

Yishai said Goldstone promised to take extra steps to retract his 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" after his Post piece.

The Geneva-based Human Rights Council has said it will continue to treat the report as a legitimate working document.

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

- AP