Ma'an – The former vice president of the European Parliament said Thursday portrayals of Goldstone's recent op-ed as a retraction of his UN report into the war on Gaza were misleading and regrettable.
Luisa Morgantini, who is also spokesperson of the Italian Peace Association, said in a statement: "On the contrary, despite Goldstone´s apparent reconsideration of specific aspects of the report, the overall validity of the document cannot be put in question."
Richard Goldstone, the South African jurist who led the UN investigation into Israel's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, printed an opinion article in the Washington Post on April 2, questioning some of the report's findings in light of subsequent Israeli investigations.
The Israeli government and some media outlets were trying to undermine the report, Morgantini said.
The recommendation of the report that Israeli and Palestinian authorities conduct credible, independent, prompt and effective investigations into alleged war crimes and possible crimes against humanity, had yet to be fulfilled, the statement said.
These recommendations were accepted by the UN Human Rights Council and the General Assembly, it noted.
On Wednesday, international rights group Amnesty International said in a statement "Recent Israeli government calls for the UN to retract the 2009 report (....) are a cynical attempt to avoid accountability for war crimes and deny both Palestinian and Israeli victims of the 2008-2009 conflict the justice and reparation they deserve."
More than two years after the conflict, "thousands of victims of the conflict have not received any form of justice; not even have they received any reparation for the damages suffered as a consequence of ‘negligent mistakes’, recognized as such by the same Israeli army," Morgantini said.
In a letter to London daily The Guardian Thursday, Palestinian human rights organizations questioned Goldstone's revision based on evidence provided by investigations by the Israeli military, considering that the UN Independent Committee of Experts concluded that Israel had failed to conduct effective investigations into serious allegations of international crimes.