Israel Matzav

An open letter to members of the Goldstone Commission who disagree with his re-evaluation

On Thursday, in a Comment is Free piece in al-Guardian, the three members of the Goldstone Commission whose last name is not Goldstone attacked his partial retraction of his report. Maurice Ostroff sends an open letter to those three commission members that includes seven difficult questions for them to answer.

I am astonished by the report in the Guardian of April 14 that, in response to Judge Goldstone’s recent oped in the Washington Post, you have “turned on him”, accusing him of misrepresenting facts in order to cast doubt on the credibility of your joint report. It is regrettable that you did not explain what facts you accuse him of misrepresenting, so that the reader can reach an informed opinion.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/14/un-gaza-report-authors-goldstone

I trust you will agree that every intellectually honest person will willingly review previously held convictions if and when relevant new evidence becomes available. To his credit, that is exactly what Judge Goldstone has done.

By contrast, your evident inflexible belief in the immutability of every sentence in your 500-plus page Report reflects an attitude reminiscent of those who refused to look at the evidence presented by Galileo and condemned his heliocentrism as contrary to Scripture.

If, as you wrote, you “find it necessary to dispel any impression that subsequent developments have rendered any part of the mission's report unsubstantiated, erroneous or inaccurate”, it is puzzling that you did not do what you find necessary by refuting the evidence that evidently influenced Judge Goldstone. I therefore respectfully ask you to please address the following circumstances.

Continue reading here.

Labels: Goldstone Report, Maurice Ostroff, Richard Goldstone

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:37 AM