“With Goldstone’s admission that ‘our fact-finding mission had no evidence’ and that ‘civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy,’ the politicized NGOs that supplied these allegations have been exposed again as biased and lacking credibility,” said  Professor Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor. “Goldstone was misled by an orchestrated campaign led by powerful NGOs, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, B’Tselem, Breaking the Silence, Adalah, Palestinian Center for Human Rights, and Al Haq. As NGO Monitor demonstrated when the report was released, the so-called ‘evidence’ provided by these groups was at the core of the political war against Israel. Goldstone was taken in by crude manipulation.”
Goldstone’s reversal is further evidence of the central role played by Human Rights Watch (HRW) in the exploitation of human rights and in promoting the bogus conclusions of the Goldstone Report. HRW employed Marc Garlasco, an obsessive collector of Nazi memorabilia, as its “senior military analyst” on the Gaza war. Officials also held a fundraiser with Saudi elites in Riyadh – not to expose the daily human rights violations in Saudi Arabia – but to bolster Garlasco’s “findings” on the conflict. Similarly, HRW embraced the Qaddafi regime and its supposed “Tripoli spring.”

Steinberg continues, “HRW has been at the forefront of demonization and distortions since the infamous 2001 Durban conference, and used its influence to promote Goldstone, who was on HRW’s board. The leaders of this organization’s Middle East division have a long history of involvement in hard-core anti-Israel advocacy. This immoral behavior led HRW’s founder, Robert Bernstein, to denounce his own organization, presaging Richard Goldstone’s reconsideration.”

Steinberg further notes, “Israeli NGOs funded by European governments and the New Israel Fund have also played a central role in advancing the one-sided agenda of repressive regimes at the UN Human Rights Council. They have continued to lobby at the U.S. Congress, European Parliament, and the Knesset. Goldstone’s Washington Post article has exposed these campaigns as nothing more than anti-Israel propaganda.”

For more information on NGOs and the Goldstone Report, see NGO Monitor’s extensive coverage at http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/goldstone_and_ngos.

And More..

Israel cleared of war crime allegations by Judge Goldstone

It may be too little and too late but Judge Goldstone has cleared Israel and the IDF from the war crimes allegations as per the Goldstone report investigating operation Cast Lead in Gaza.

In September 2009, the UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict chaired by Justice Richard Goldstone submitted its report (the Goldstone Report) to the Human Rights Council in Geneva. The Report suggested that war crimes had been committed by all parties in the Gaza Conflict, and has served as the basis for an extensive political and legal campaign against Israel in the international arena.

Now Judge Goldstone paints a very different picture from the original report and concludes that Israel has been truthful all along. Here are the major points in his remorse-full article:

• Israel has the right and obligation to defend itself and its citizens against attacks from abroad and within.
• Israel has dedicated significant resources to investigate allegations of operational misconduct in Gaza concluding civilians were not intentionally targeted by the IDF
• Hamas has continued to fire hundreds of rockets and mortars at civilians in Israel
• The laws of armed conflict apply to Hamas no less than to national armies
• Hamas has  not conducted any investigations into the launching of rocket and mortar attacks against Israel. Expecting Hamas would actually investigate itself may have been a mistake.
• The UN’s Human Rights Committee has a proven history of anti Israel bias. It should condemn Hamas’ heinous acts against Israel in the strongest terms and not target Israel every chance it gets.

All of us in Giyus.org and all those that support Israel have known all along that Israel acted according to International laws and that the IDF did not intentionally target civilians. Hamas on the other hand, intentionally attacks Israeli civilians, firing from residential areas and turning Gazans into Human Shields. Hamas is hoping the IDF will retaliate and Gazans will be caught in the cross fire. The more civilians casualties Hamas can orchestrate the more damage is done to Israel’s reputation. The Goldstone report played right into the hands of Hamas in that regard.

While Judge Goldstone clears Israel and the IDF from any misconduct, sadly the damage to Israel’s reputation has already been done. Please take action – contact Judge Goldstone, ask him to share his conclusions on the Goldstone report with the UN’s Human Rights Council who commissioned it. Thank him for clearing Israel of war crime allegations but ask him to demand the UN retract the Goldstone Report.