Palmer vs Goldstone: lessons learned

[King_David]

By GERALD M. STEINBERG AND GIDON SHAVIV
09/07/2011 21:54


Criticism of Israel is usually foregone conclusion of any UN commission, particularly when human rights, humanitarian issues are involved.

The blog “Lawfare” began its posting on the Palmer Report – entitled “The UN vindicates Israel” – by stating that the title was neither satire nor an April 1st joke. This tongue-in-cheek reference is indicative of the low expectations of objectivity in any UN report concerning Israel.

Criticism of Israel is usually the foregone conclusion of any UN commission, particularly when human rights or humanitarian issues are involved.

However, the recent Palmer Commission report deserves special notice. It investigated events surrounding the deaths of self-styled “peace activists” who were attempting to run an Israeli naval blockade on Gaza in May 2010.

Compared to previous reports, it was evenhanded to an almost unprecedented degree. The Commission concluded that the Israeli blockade of Gaza was legal, although it criticized Israel for what it said was disproportionate use of force against the members of the IHH organization who attacked the Israeli commandos boarding the ships. This was a striking contrast to the notoriously one-sided, UN-commissioned Goldstone Report, which even Judge Richard Goldstone, its author, recently repudiated.

Several factors appear to explain the contrast between the Palmer and Goldstone reports.

The first factor is that different UN bodies were behind the two reports. The Goldstone “fact finding” commission arose out of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) which has 47 member states, including China, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and, until recently, Libya and even Iran. The UNHRC has Israel as the only country on its permanent agenda and consistently singles out Israel for condemnations.

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=237095

[King_David]

1. I wonder if Palmer will express regret

And disavow himself of the findings,like Goldstone did .