Sunday, November 08, 2009

Goldstone and Gold at Brandeis, November 5, 2009

The Brandeis event was held the day after the General Assembly's endorsement of the Goldstone report. By a vote of 114 ayes, 18 nos, 44 abstentions and with 16 member states not voting, the GA confirmed the report. Notable abstentions were France, the UK and Japan. China voted with "aye". All Scandinavian countries abstained. [Thanks to Muzz] Ireland, Switzerland, Portugal, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Cyprus, Albania, and Malta were the European countries voting "yes".

A video of the Brandeis presentations is here. As you will note, the introducers, not least Ilan Troen were at pains to underline their rejection of the Goldstone report.
An indicative sample:  Goldstone, asked to discuss incidents that corroborate the charges made by the commission, points, among other cases, to an attack on a mosque that killed 21 worshippers.  He notes there were no secondary explosions.  He continues that even if the mosque was being used for military purposes, then the Israeli military should have struck it during a time when the mosque was not being used for worship.  Dore Gold, in response, states emphatically that "Israel did not strike that mosque".  In rejoinder, Justice Goldstone says that remnants of the IDF munitions were found in the mosque and that tungsten fragments from Israeli munitions were removed from the wall of the mosque in his presence.

2 comments:

muzz said...

european countries besides ireland who endorsed the goldstone report:

switzerland, portugal, slovenia, serbia, bosnia/herzegovina, cyprus, albania, malta

Anonymous said...

And this "proves" what?