Israel has asked the United Nations to dump a damning report on its much-criticised military operation in Gaza two years back after its author regretted some of his conclusions.
Israel has asked the United Nations to dump a damning report on its much-criticised military operation in Gaza two years back after its author regretted some of his conclusions.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today said his country was planning an international campaign to push the UN to retract the Goldstone Commission's report on the Israel Defence Forces' (IDF) 2008-2009 Gaza operation, Haaretz newspaper reported.
Israel's fresh demand came after South African judge Richard Goldstone expressed regret for his accusation that the IDF targeted civilians during the Gaza war.
Netanyahu yesterday asked the UN to "nullify" the report, saying it "must be thrown into the dustbin of history."
In an op-ed for the Washington Post, Goldstone, who had led the UN investigation, said: "We know a lot more today about what happened in the Gaza war of 2008-09 than we did when I chaired the fact-finding mission appointed by the UN Human Rights Council that produced what has come to be known as the Goldstone Report".
"I regret that our fact-finding mission did not have such evidence explaining the circumstances in which we said civilians in Gaza were targeted, because it probably would have influenced our findings about intentionality and war crimes," Goldstone wrote.
"If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document," he said.
After Goldstone's retraction, Netanyahu asked his National Security Adviser Ya'akov Amidror to establish a committee focused on 'minimising the damage caused' by the report.
Netanyahu said he was expecting to receive suggestions on how to proceed in the coming days towards efforts to see the report officially retracted.
Netanyahu told his cabinet at its weekly meeting that Goldstone's retraction of his conclusion accusing Israel of war crimes was rare and deserving of further action.
"There are very few incidents in which false accusations are taken back, and this is the case with the Goldstone report," Netanyahu told ministers.
Defence minister Ehud Barak said Israel must force the judge to appear before international forums - particularly the UN - to explain the revision of his account.
"The Gaza front must be dealt with by the international community, as terrorists are fighting from within the civilian populace," the defence minister said.
Barak backed Israel's decision not to cooperate with Goldstone's fact-finding commission on Operation Cast Lead, calling the Commission for Human Rights which sponsored the report a "ridiculous forum of the enemies of Israel".
President Shimon Peres called on Goldstone to apologise for his report.
Peres defended the IDF as having operated out of self-defence, adding that Israel had carried out an internal probe of its own on the matter.
"Goldstone ignored the main reason for the IDF's operation in Gaza, the firing of thousands of rockets at innocent civilians," said Peres.
During Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli military offensive launched in December 2008 in response to rocket fire from Gaza.
Netanyahu said the Jewish state did not deliberately target civilians.
Meanwhile, in Gaza, Islamist movement Hamas said the report remained credible despite Goldstone's retraction and asked the UN to implement it.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the Palestinian organization was surprised by Goldstone's new stance.
"Hamas is surprised ... by the position in which he retracted some parts of his report and supported the Israeli narrative," the statement said, recalling that Hamas had cooperated with the inquiry, while Israel had not.
"Hamas calls on the United Nations to enforce the provisions in the Goldstone report because the report has become an international document," the statement said.
It said Goldstone did not now have the right to come and change the findings.
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