India’s stand on Goldstone report shocks CPI(M)

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Friday said it was shocked by India’s stand in the United Nations General Assembly of expressing reservation over endorsing the findings and recommendations of the Goldstone report that showed Israel had committed war crimes in the Gaza war.

Referring to a statement by a member of the Indian delegation B.K. Hari Prasad at the special session of the General Assembly, the CPI(M) Polit Bureau said the Government of India should stand up for Palestinian rights and reverse its “shameful” stand.

The CPI(M) said Mr. Prasad told the Assembly: “We have reservations in making unqualified endorsement of the various recommendations as well as some of the procedures adopted by the Goldstone report, including the involvement of the International Criminal Court and that of the Security Council.”

It said Judge Richard Goldstone — a jurist of impeccable international judicial credentials and a Jewish South African — held both Israel and the Hamas responsible for violation of humanitarian international law in the three-week war in Gaza in his meticulous and detailed report submitted to the U.N.

While the Hamas cooperated with the judge, Israel refused to do so. It also refused to conduct any probe into the detailed list of war crimes by the Israeli forces.

“It must be borne in the mind that Judge Goldstone did not investigate whether the Gaza war was legal or not but only whether Israeli forces violated international law in its conduct of the war,” it said.

The CPI(M) said Israel and the U.S. were trying to bury the report by first opposing it in the U.N. Human Rights Council, where the overwhelming opinion went against them and now in the General Assembly. Their aim was to pass a weak resolution in the General Assembly, which would allow Israel to get away from any future action on its blatant violation of humanitarian law in the conduct of the war.