The Goldstone Report 'Reconsidered': A Critical Analysis

Contributions by Abraham Bell, Peter Berkowitz, Laurie Blank, Chatham House, Irwin Cotler , Alan Dershowitz, Dore Gold, Moshe Halbertal, Anne Herzberg, Richard Landes, Ed Morgan, Trevor Norwitz, Gerald M. Steinberg.

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.

Prof. Gerald Steinberg is president of NGO Monitor and professor of Political Studies at Bar Ilan University. His research interests include international relations, Middle East diplomacy and security, the politics of human rights and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Israeli politics and arms control.

He works with a number of international organizations (NATO, UN University, OSCE, SIPRI); participates in track-two workshops and in the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism ICCA; and is the founder of the Program on Conflict Management and Negotiation at Bar Ilan University.

Recent academic publications include NGOs, Human Rights, and Political Warfare in the Arab-Israel Conflict; Europe's Failed Middle East Policies; Uncivil Society: Ideology, Human Rights, and Antisemitism; and The UN, the ICJ and the Separation Barrier: War by Other Means (Israel Law Review). He is also completing research examining the credibility of human rights organizations during the 2006 Lebanon war, under the auspices of the Israel Science Foundation.

His op-ed columns have been published in Wall St. Journal (Europe), Financial Times, Ha aretz, International Herald Tribune, Jerusalem Post, and other publications. He has appeared as a commentator on the BBC, CBC. CNN, and NPR.

Anne Herzberg is the Legal Advisor of NGO Montor. Anne is the author of NGO Lawfare : Exploitation of Courts in the Arab-Israeli Conflict and the co-author of the forthcoming, Best Practices for Human Rights and Humanitarian NGO Fact-finding. Her articles and opeds have appeared in many major news outlets including the Wall Street Journal (Europe), Ha'aretz, The Jerusalem Post, YNet, InFocus Quarterly, and Jewish Ideas Daily. She has also published on the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia.