US State Dept spokesman misrepresents Goldstone Report

IMEMC
In a press briefing at the US Department of State Friday, spokesperson Ian Kelly told reporters that the US government had a problem with the UN Human Rights Commission Report authored by Richard Goldstone because, according to Kelly, the report gives "a one-sided mandate to look into the Israeli side of it only, without giving an opportunity to the authorities themselves to look into it".

But even a cursory look into the Goldstone Report's recommendations shows that it does, in fact, call for domestic investigations by both the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority into human rights violations by both sides. The report very clearly recommends that Israel and Hamas both conduct domestic investigations of the violations documented in the report, and states that if this is not done within six months, that the matter be taken up by the International Criminal Court.

The report, commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council, was mandated to explore allegations of human rights violations by both the Israeli military and Palestinian resistance groups during Israel's 3-week long invasion of Gaza in January of this year. During that invasion, over 1400 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces (over 80% of whom were civilians who did not engage in any resistance), while 4 Israeli civilians were killed by Palestinian resistance fighters. Full story