- Title: JERUSALEM: Israel urges U.N. to cancel Gaza war crimes report
- Date: 4th April 2011
- Summary: JERUSALEM (APRIL 3, 2011) (REUTERS) ISRAELI MINISTER WALKING TOWARDS WEEKLY CABINET MEETING ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU WALKING TOWARDS WEEKLY CABINET MEETING NETANYAHU LEADING WEEKLY MEETING MINISTERS PREPARING FOR MEETING (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU SAYING: "There are very few cases in which people who falsely accuse someone retract their accusations. This happened in the Goldstone report case, in which Goldstone himself said that everything we said over time turned out to be true. That Israel has never targeted intentionally any citizen, that the Israeli investigative bodies act according to the highest international standards. This is of course in complete contradistinction to Hamas which intentionally targeted, harmed and murdered civilians, and which did not conduct any examination. This brings us to call for the immediate cancelation of the Goldstone report." MINISTERS DURING CABINET MEETING ISRAELI DEFENCE MINISTER EHUD BARAK ADDRESSING JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ISRAELI DEFENCE MINISTER EHUD BARAK SAYING: "I think that it's too little and too late but I welcome the article of Judge Goldstone in the Washington Post. Now the time had come to announce it, to state it to the whole world not just the readers of the Washington Post. We said from day one that it's distorted and manipulated report. And I think that now the time had come both to announce it and to start working much more seriously about how to correct the international rules, norms and laws in order that it will enable both us and others to fight against terror even if terrorists are acting from within condensed civilian population." WIDE OF MEDIA OUTSIDE CABINET MEETING
- Embargoed: 19th April 2011 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Jerusalem, Jerusalem
- City:
- Country: Israel
- Topics: War / Fighting,International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVA3AQ3Z3LXO1NV79XX89XJ7SLEC
- Story Text: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday (April 3) called called on the U.N. to immediately cancel a report which said Israel had committed war crimes during its December 2008-January 2009 Gaza offensive, after its author said he may have been wrong.
"There are very few cases in which people who falsely accuse someone retract their accusations. This happened in the Goldstone report case, in which Goldstone himself said that everything we said over time turned out to be true. That Israel has never targeted intentionally any citizen, that the Israeli investigative bodies act according to the highest international standards. This is of course in complete contradistinction to Hamas which intentionally targeted, harmed and murdered civilians, and which did not conduct any examination. This brings us to call for the immediate cancelation of the Goldstone report," Netanyahu said in opening remarks at a weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.
South African jurist Richard Goldstone chaired a fact finding mission which in a 2009 report to the U.N. Human Rights Council said both Israel and the Islamist group Hamas, which controls Gaza, were guilty of war crimes in the conflict.
Goldstone wrote in a Washington Post column published on Friday (April 1) that his report would have been a 'different document' had he known then what he knows now.
About 1,400 Palestinians, including hundreds of civilians, and 13 Israelis were killed in the devastating war that was launched with Israel's declared aim of ending cross-border rocket fire from Palestinian militants.
Israel refused to cooperate with Goldstone's mission and condemned his report as distorted and biased. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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