RAMALLAH, April 14 (JMCC) - Three members of a UN commission into Israel's 2008-09
war in Gaza have responded to calls for their report to be revised.
Writing in The Guardian, Hina Jilani, Christine Chinkin and Desmond Travers say that recent attempts to undermine the findings of their report on alleged war crimes are unjustified.
We concur in our view that there is no justification for any demand or expectation for reconsideration of the report as nothing of substance has appeared that would in any way change the context, findings or conclusions of that report with respect to any of the parties to the Gaza conflict. Indeed, there is no UN procedure or precedent to that effect.
The report of the fact-finding mission contains the conclusions made after diligent, independent and objective consideration of the information related to the events within our mandate, and careful assessment of its reliability and credibility. We firmly stand by these conclusions.
The head of the four-member commission, Judge Richard Goldstone, wrote an
opinion piece in early April implying that new evidence had altered his view of the Gaza report's conclusions.
The Israeli government seized upon this view, calling on the United Nations to nullify its report.
While the three other members of the commission do not address Goldstone directly in their statement, they address the substance of his comments.