View from Geneva

Francesca Marotta, Head UN Staffer for Goldstone Report, Was to Headline Anti-Israel Event in Lausanne

GENEVA - FOX News has revealed that following a UN Watch protest, the United Nations chief of staff for the Goldstone Report canceled her scheduled keynote address for an anti-Israel event held last Saturday in Lausanne, Switzerland. (See full FOX News report below.)

Francesca Marotta, Head of the Secretariat of the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, was to headline an event lobbying for “the Russell Tribunal on Palestine,” a one-sided political exercise with a foregone conclusion. The Swiss gathering was sponsored by “Collectif Urgence Palestine,” a group that was recently condemned by a United Nations expert panel for having organized an “apparently anti-Semitic” demonstration last year with stone-throwing and verbal threats against members of the Geneva Jewish community. Continue reading ‘FOX News: After UN Watch Protest, Chief Goldstone Aide Cancels Keynote Address for ‘Russell Tribunal on Palestine’’

The U.S. Congress today cited a UN Watch report when it stifled Judge Richard Goldstone’s objections to a draft resolution that slams his report for bias. US Rep. Howard Berman, Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and Gary Ackerman, Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Middle East, today sent their Congress colleagues this point-by-point rejoinder of a vehement letter recently sent to Congress by Goldstone (but which had the name of “Morton Halperin,” Geroge Soros’ key adviser, listed as author on the electronic file).

The relevant section:

[Goldstone:] “3. Paragraph 5: The member concerned, Professor Christine Chinkin of the London School of Economics, in the same letter, together with other leading international lawyers, also condemned as war crimes the Hamas rockets fired into Israel.”

Response: The letter Professor Chinkin signed, which was published in the British press in mid-January, did indeed accuse Hamas of war crimes. But it also accused Israel of war crimes, months before the investigation began, clearly prejudging the outcome of the investigation regarding both parties. In my view, Professor Chinkin should have been disqualified from serving on the commission, based on her having signed the letter. The UN watchdog UN Watch notes that Justice Goldstone himself admitted in an August interview that the signature “would have been grounds for disqualification” if the commission had constituted a formal judicial inquiry.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Geneva, Oct. 1, 2009 - UN Watch comments on the surprise news that the Palestinian draft resolution on the Goldstone report has been withdrawn prior to voting tomorrow at the UN Human Rights Council:

“This constitutes a massive defeat for Mr. Goldstone’s biased report, a slipshod piece of work whose scattershot recommendations to the entire world threatened to harm, not help, the peace process,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva human rights monitoring group.

“Goldstone’s reliance on Hamas witnesses — including the same Hamas police spokesman , Islam Shahwan, that accused Israel of distributing aphrodisiac gum to corrupt Gaza youth — reflected the biased agenda of the Arab-controlled UN Human Rights Council, which created the ‘fact-finding’ mission by declaring Israel guilty in advance.”

Agenda Item 7, UNHRC, 12^th Session
Interactive Dialogue with Fact-Finding Mission on Gaza
UN Watch Statement, delivered by Dr. Mirela Siderer

Click for video

Thank you, Mr. President.

My name is Dr. Mirela Siderer.  I am a gynecologist living in Ashkelon, Israel.

Judge Goldstone, in July you invited me to testify. I told you my story.

I am known by my patients-including many women from Gaza.  For me, every human being is equal. Continue reading ‘Dramatic U.N. Clash; Israeli Rocket Victim Asks Goldstone: “Why Were You Silent?”’

News: Richard Goldstone reports back today to the U.N. Human Rights Council, the 47-nation body dominated by repressive regimes that, back in January, created his “fact-finding” mission on Gaza by declaring Israel guilty from the start. UN Watch will be present to vigorously challenge the report’s pro-Hamas narrative — which effectively grants immunity to the human shield tactics of fellow terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and the Taleban — and its egregiously one-sided conclusions. We are also urging the U.S., the European Union and all member states against terrorism to oppose the Arab-sponsored draft resolution that seeks to endorse the report. The vote is set for the end of this week. Supporters of the report include Hamas, its sponsor Iran, and Human Rights Watch.   To follow UN Watch’s live Twitter coverage of the debate – Sept. 29, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 pm (Geneva time) – click here. For more on the Goldstone report, see resource materials at bottom, or visit www.unwatch.org/goldstone. Continue reading ‘U.N. Goldstone Report Slammed by Anti-Apartheid Activist’

In the Canadian House of Commons Today

Mr. James Lunney (Nanaimo-Alberni, CPC):

Mr. Speaker, this week the UN Human Rights Council released its latest anti-Israel missive.

The Goldstone report began with a mandate to condemn the Jewish state in a process that Canada and many other nations would not support. The report accuses Israel of war crimes in the recent Gaza conflict.

Regrettably, war crimes is the same claim made by the Leader of the Opposition during the conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Could the minister of state please inform this House what the government’s response is to this report?

Hon. Peter Kent (Minister of State of Foreign Affairs (Americas), CPC):

Mr. Speaker, I would remind this House that the so-called fact-finding commission was the creation of one of the United Nation’s most flawed bodies, the Human Rights Council, which includes some of the UN’s least democratic states.

In commissioning this study, the Human Rights Council pre-emptively assumed Israel’s culpability. This government has never equated Israel, a democratic state, with terrorist groups which seek to destroy both it and its people.

Mr. Speaker this government will continue to remind Canadians and members opposite that it is one thing to offer supportive words to Israel when it’s convenient, and quite another to stand firm in its hour of need.

Toronto, Canada, Sept. 12, 2009 – Thirty Canadian lawyers are challenging the refusal of a U.N. investigator to step down from an inquiry on the recent Gaza conflict, saying London School of Economics professor Christine Chinkin’s presence on the panel — after she declared Israel guilty prior to seeing any evidence — “necessarily compromises the integrity of this inquiry and its report.”

While UN rights chief Navi Pillay and groups critical of Israel say the imminent report, authored by a UN Human Rights Council inquiry headed by former South African judge Richard Goldstone,  should be referred by the Security Council to the International Criminal Court, Geneva diplomats say U.S. and Western states will block any such attempt by the Arab and Islamic blocs. Continue reading ‘30 Canadian lawyers Challenge “Biased” U.N. Investigator’s Refusal to Step Down From Gaza Inquiry’

Following  is the August 25, 2009 statement sent by the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict to The Jewish Chronicle of London, in response to UN Watch’s legal brief demanding the disqualification of Christine Chinkin:

“The allegation by UN Watch that Professor Christine Chinkin is disqualified from being a member of the UN Fact Finding Mission is based solely on the contents of a public letter published on 11 January 2009 in the London Sunday Times. The letter condemns in clear terms the firing of rockets by Hamas and suicide bombings. It also states that the military attacks by Israel were unlawful and contrary to the provisions of international law and, in particular, the Charter of the United Nations. More specifically, the signatories to the letter state that the response by Israel was not commensurate with the deaths caused by the Hamas rocket fire. A copy of the letter is attached. Continue reading ‘U.N. Goldstone inquiry rejects ’so-called petition of UN Watch’; denies mission is quasi-judicial’

GENEVA, August 20, 2009 - The U.N. fact-finding mission into alleged violations in the recent Gaza conflict is being asked to disqualify London School of Economics law professor Christine Chinkin, over prior statements she made “categorically rejecting” Israel’s right to self-defence against Hamas rocket attacks, and accusing Israel of “aggression” and “prima facie war crimes.” A 28-page legal brief was filed today by the Geneva-based monitoring group UN Watch.

“International law and the rules of due process require fact-finders in the human rights field to be impartial,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch and an international lawyer, “and that means being free of any commitment to a preconceived outcome.” Continue reading ‘LSE Law Professor Urged to Step Down from U.N Gaza Inquiry over Bias’