The Goldstone standard

In his initial report about the Goldstone Commission report, Colum Lynch of the Washington Post wrote:

He cited one incident in which Israeli forces allegedly fired a mortar shell through the door of a mosque in Gaza City during a religious service attended by several hundred worshipers, killing 15 and injuring others. He said there was no evidence to suggest that the mosque had been occupied by militants or had been used to store weapons.

And indeed this is what’s claimed in the report in its “factual findings” (page 237 of the .pdf) of the case|:

835. There has been no suggestion that the al-Maqadmah mosque was being used at that time to launch rockets, store weapons or shelter combatants.465 Since it does not appear from the testimonies of the incident or the inspection of the site that any other damage was done in the area at that time, the Mission concludes that what occurred was an isolated strike and not in connection with an ongoing battle or exchange of fire.

In other words the Goldstone commission’s “factual” finding was that Israel arbitrarily fired at a mosque killing at least 15 people.

However, Jonathan D. Halevi did a little digging. There might be a reason that there was “no suggestion” that the al-Maqadmah mosque did not “shelter combatants.” The commission never bothered to ask.

Many of the questions were irrelevant and unconnected to the circumstances of the event. The commission members did not ask about armed men in the mosque, whether it was used for military purposes or incited worshippers to carry out terrorist attacks against Israel. They did not ask if there were weapons in the mosque, if armed men were operating near the mosque, whether Hamas and its Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades controlled the mosque and used it to recruit operatives, or the identity of the casualties and their organizational affiliation (including members of the al-Silawi family).

An examination of freely accessible Palestinian sources shows that the casualties in this incident were terrorist operatives and included members of the al-Silawi family, who were represented to the commission as innocent civilians.

Halevi goes on to list the active members of Hamas who were targeted and killed in the attack as Ibrahim Moussa Issa al-Silawi, Omar Abd al-Hafez Moussa al-Silawi (Abu Souheib), Sayid Salah Sayid Batah, Ahmed Hamad Hassan Abu Ita, Muhanad Ibrahim al-Tanani (Abu Islam), Rajah Nahad Rajah Ziyyada, and Ahmed Assad Diyab Tabil. The last two were 18 and 16 respectively, which shows that some of those classified as children killed by Israel were actual combatants.

So the Goldstone commission didn’t do basic research. It had a narrative – that Israel attacked and killed civilians recklessly – and couldn’t be bothered to check for anything that might contradict that narrative.

With a little ingenuity and effort as displayed by Elder of Ziyon and his fellow researchers Goldstone could have established the background of Omar al-Silawi without leaving Geneva.

In his op-ed, Judge Goldstone wrote:

I accepted because the mandate of the mission was to look at all parties: Israel; Hamas, which controls Gaza; and other armed Palestinian groups. I accepted because my fellow commissioners are professionals committed to an objective, fact-based investigation.

I noted yesterday that this was dishonest, as Mary Robinson declined to head the commission on grounds that its mandate was one sided. Judge Goldstone’s failure, in this case, to ask the necessary questions or to do the requisite research to establish his facts, shows that Mrs. Robinson was correct. He was effectively charged with establishing Israel’s guilt, and he discharged his duties accordingly.

Crossposted at Yourish.