Michał Kamiński on the Goldstone Report

Brussels, 24th February 2010

The Goldstone report is an extremely imbalanced and unjust report. This report comes from the UN Human Rights Committee, which includes countries such as Iran, Nicaragua, Somalia and Libya. What right do these countries have - where respect for human rights is less than none - to judge the only democracy in the Middle East, Israel?

This is a report that comes from a very questionable source - a source that is obsessively averse to the state of Israel. From 25 resolutions on human rights that this committee has adopted, 20 concern Israel.  None of them concern those countries, which are part of this committee, that have a terrible track record on human rights - starting with the rights of women and ending with voters' rights.

I wish to underline that this report is completely imbalanced. In essence, it attempts to exonerate the terrorist activities of Hamas. This report does not gives us the basic fact that for eight years, before Israel began its activity in Gaza (in its own defence and with every right to do so), for eight years thousands of rockets were launched at innocent Israeli civilians. Every country has the right to defend itself against terrorists - Israel also has this right.

We should also mention that 150 criminal cases that examine the conduct of Israeli soldiers, are taking place in Israel.  In Israel, there is a free parliament and a free press that very often criticizes its own government and its own armed forces. None of these aspects - unfortunately - can be attributed to the terrorist side. This is why I believe that this imbalanced report, which is unjust and - in my opinion - shamelessly attacks our main ally in the Middle East, should not be taken seriously.

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