The Goldstone Report "Reconsidered"- A Critical Analysis

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Israel has been the subject of numerous controversial U.N. inquiries related to armed conflict and responses to terror attacks. But, the scope and impact of the Report of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, known as the Goldstone Report, were particularly extreme.

Produced under the politicized U.N. Human Rights Council, the fact-finding reflected in the Goldstone Report has been shown to be largely inaccurate. Similarly, international legal claims were distorted in a manner that maximized allegations of Israeli violations, while minimizing Hamas war crimes during the December 2008 January 2009 Gaza War.

Applying a number of academic approaches, the contributors to this book systematically address the flaws of the report and examine its far-reaching consequences. As demonstrated, the Goldstone Report sets a highly flawed example for other investigations of armed conflicts and international justice. Its methodological deficiencies, double standards, misleading interpretations of law, and unsupported conclusions are antithetical to the universal principles of human rights, including the right to self-defense.

The Goldstone Report Reconsidered is an essential volume for understanding the principles, as well as the distortions, of human rights and international law, particularly in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Contents and Contributors

Foreword: The Dangerous Bias of the United Nations Goldstone Report
Dore Gold, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs

From Durban to Goldstone: Abusing Human Rights for Political Warfare
Gerald M. Steinberg, Bar Ilan University/NGO Monitor

The Goldstone Mission  –  Tainted to the Core
Irwin Cotler, Canadian Member of Parliament

The U.N.’s Book of Judges
Ed Morgan, University of Toronto

Goldstone’s Gaza Report: A Failure of Intelligence
Richard Landes, Boston University

NGOs & the Goldstone Report
Anne Herzberg, NGO Monitor

Report of an Expert Meeting which Assessed Procedural Criticisms made of the U.N. Fact-finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict (The Goldstone Report)
Chatham House

The Case Against the Goldstone Report – A Study in Evidentiary Bias
Alan Dershowitz, Harvard University

Letter to Justice Goldstone
Trevor Norwitz, Columbia University

The Goldstone Report and International Law
Peter Berkowitz, Stanford University

The Application of IHL in the Goldstone Report: A Critical Commentary
Laurie Blank, Emory University

A Critique of the Goldstone Report and its Treatment of International Humanitarian Law
Avi Bell, Bar Ilan University/University of San Diego

The Goldstone Illusion
Moshe Halbertal, Hebrew University