When Israeli tanks and troops rolled into Gaza in December 2007, there was no doubt about the outcome of the conflict. Nor was there any doubt about who would be held responsible for using disproportionate force and deliberately harming civilians. Never mind that Israel was responding to years of rocket bombardments from Gaza on its civilian population; that it had long since pulled all its troops and settlers out of Gaza; that the ruling Hamas movement refused to recognise the Jewish state and was pledged to its destruction; and that Hamas was using its own population as human shields.
The United Nations Human Rights Council, which had remained steadfastly silent about the human rights of Israelis suffering rocket attacks, quickly swung into action. It strongly condemned Israel’s Operation Cast Lead, which it said ‘resulted in massive violations of human rights of the Palestinian people and systematic destruction of the Palestinian infrastructure’. Then it set up a commission to confirm its opinion.
Step forward Richard Goldstone, ‘a Jew who has supported Israel and its people all my life’, to head the commission. Last week, the Human Rights Council graciously accepted his findings that Israel committed war crimes and may have committed crimes against humanity. And, hey presto, the job was done.
Richard Goldstone will now be lionised from Pyongyang to Ouagadougou, and all points in between where the oppressed find succour. Streets will be named after him, university chairs will be endowed in his honour and state medals will be struck for this great class-struggler. But to senior legal colleagues in South Africa, he will always be Richard Richard Goldstone.
Richard Richard?
‘Oh yes,’ says a former senior colleague who was close to Goldstone for many years.
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