Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Richard Goldstone Has Somthing To Say (Bard)..

In Yesterday's New York Times. Richard Goldstone, author of the controversial "Goldstone Report" and former justice in the South African Constitutional Court wrote an editorial titled: "Israel and the Apartheid Slander".

Goldstone was responding to The Russell Tribunal on Palestine (a London based NGO) efforts to hold a “hearing” on whether Israel is guilty of the crime of apartheid in Cape Town this week. Justice Goldstone claims that “It is not a "tribunal. The "evidence" is going to be one-sided and the members of the "jury" are critics whose harsh views of Israel are well known.”

Goldstone writes:

“While "apartheid" can have broader meaning, its use is meant to evoke the situation in pre-1994 South Africa. It is an unfair and inaccurate slander against Israel, calculated to retard rather than advance peace negotiations.”

“I know all too well the cruelty of South Africa's abhorrent apartheid system, under which human beings characterized as black had no rights to vote, hold political office, use "white" toilets or beaches, marry whites, live in whites-only areas or even be there without a "pass." Blacks critically injured in car accidents were left to bleed to death if there was no "black" ambulance to rush them to a "black" hospital. "White" hospitals were prohibited from saving their lives. “

“In assessing the accusation that Israel pursues apartheid policies, which are by definition primarily about race or ethnicity, it is important first to distinguish between the situations in Israel, where Arabs are citizens, and in West Bank areas that remain under Israeli control in the absence of a peace agreement.”

He concludes his article by stating: “Of course, the Palestinian people have national aspirations and human rights that all must respect. But those who conflate the situations in Israel and the West Bank and liken both to the old South Africa do a disservice to all who hope for justice and peace.”

Israel is at war with Palestine, Palestine is at war with Israel until, this is resolved Palestinians will never be given the rights they deserve by neither their authorities nor the Israeli government. “Hearings” such as this are unproductive and only result in slander, nothing will be gained from this effort. The biased Russell Tribunal should seek to resolve the situation of inequality in the area and not just point figures where we all know that they have been pointed before. The tribunal will not conclude anything new and it will not contribute to the peace process only attempt to hamper it. I am sure the people involved in the Russell Tribunal are well intentioned, well educated and nice people and I even more certain that they think what they are doing is more important than anything - but its not and its a waste of all their time.


It is almost like they want to change the a certain country's (or even the world's) economic policies and instead of doing anything about it, they sit in a park all day long - imagine.

- Roy


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