Israeli President, Shimon Peres, slammed Judge Richard Goldstone, who headed the Gaza war investigation team, and described him as “a small person who is out to hurt Israel”. Israeli paper, Haaretz, reported that the statements of Peres came during a Thursday morning meeting with Brazilian President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Peres said that Brazil made a mistake when it voted for the Goldstone.
He added that many countries made the same mistake “as judge Goldstone’s report was one-sided, and aims at hurting Israel and its image”.
The Israeli President stated that Judge Goldstone is not credible and that he does not understand the circumstances of the conflict.
He further said that “if it is really necessary to conduct an investigation, then the United Nations should investigate Goldstone”.
Haaretz said that Peres rejected the idea of having Israel conduct an internal investigation into the war. He said that his country understands its responsibility and that its army and defense ministry conducted an investigation directly after the war ended and found no violation on behalf of the army.
Judge Goldstone said in his report that both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes by shelling civilian areas.
He also slammed Israel for shelling densely populated areas in the Gaza Strip, in addition to shelling educational facilities, hospitals, ambulances, infrastructure, UNRWA facilities and schools, and various civilian targets.
More than 16000 Palestinians were killed in three weeks of war earlier this year and nearly 6000 were wounded. Nine Israelis were killed by Palestinian fire, and four soldiers were killed by friendly fire.
