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New Goldstone Committee Head Charged with Bias

(Jerusalem Post) Benjamin Weinthal - German jurist Christian Tomuschat, chairman of the UN committee responsible for following up on the findings of the Goldstone Report on Israel's 2009 Gaza operation, helped prepare a brief for PLO leader Yasser Arafat in 1996 concerning the international law aspects of the peace process, which suggested that Arafat should bring his case to the UN General Assembly, which could then refer it to the International Court of Justice. The fact that Tomuschat had worked directly for one of the relevant parties should have been disclosed when his appointment to the Goldstone follow-up committee was made. The panel was appointed last month by UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay, and is expected to publish a report in October. Furthermore, Tomuschat has already made plain his conviction that states are incapable of effectively conducting investigations into alleged excesses by their military forces. Tomuschat, in a 2007 interview in which he discussed Israel's killing of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in 2004, said, "Targeted killings are as ruthless as the attacks of terrorists." Israel is acutely concerned about the Goldstone follow-up committee, whose mandate includes examining the efficiency, independence and professionalism of Israel's court system and its adherence to internationally accepted standards. Critics of the UN panel have asserted that it is incapable of performing its work fairly because all three of its members are affiliated with the International Commission of Jurists, which has a long history of anti-Israel bias.
2010-07-26 08:47:37
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