Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: l'eroico Goldstone

Judge Goldstone's dark past
Yedioth Ahronoth investigation reveals man preaching human rights, who 
authored scathing report against Israel's operation in Gaza, sent at 
least 28 black defendants to gallows as South African judge under 
Apartheid regime
Tehiya Barak, Tzadok Yehezkeli
He asserted that Israel committed war crimes and came out against the 
Israel Defense Forces, whom he claimed violated basic human rights. 
Judge Richard Goldstone forgot just one thing – to look long and hard in 
the mirror and to do some soul-searching before he rushes to criticize 
others.
A special Yedioth Ahronoth investigation reveals Richard Goldstone's 
dark side as a judge during the Apartheid era in South Africa. It turns 
out, the man who authored the Goldstone Report criticizing the IDF's 
actions during Operation Cast Lead took an active part in the racist 
policies of one of the cruelest regimes of the 20th century.
  During his tenure as sitting as judge in the appellant court during 
the 1980s and 1990s sentenced dozens of blacks mercilessly to their death.
This stain on Goldstone's past kept him from coming out against the 
death penalty on many occasions and from vehemently criticizing 
countries who still allow executions. Goldstone didn't bother confessing 
and telling about his actions in any of his statements or speeches.
Yedioth Ahronoth's findings show that Goldstone sentenced at least 28 
black defendants to death. Most of them were found guilty of murder and 
sought to appeal the verdict. In those days, he actually made sure he 
showed his support for the execution policy, writing in one verdict that 
it reflects society's demands that a price be paid for crimes it 
rightfully views as frightening.
In another verdict, in which he upheld the execution of a young black 
man convicted of murdering a white restaurant owner after he fired him, 
Goldstone wrote that the death penalty is the only punishment likely to 
deter such acts.
'Merely upholding laws of country'
It should be noted that whites, granted superior status under Apartheid 
Law, were the ones calling that such a heavy price be exacted for 
violent crimes, while the black majority in South Africa consistently 
opposed the death penalty.
Only in 1995 when Nelson Mandela took power was the South African 
constitution amended and the death penalty abolished. Hundreds of people 
sitting on death row were spared, including some that Goldstone himself 
sent there.
Even when it came to far less serious offenses, Goldstone sided through 
and through with the racist policies of the Apartheid regime. Among 
other things, he approved the whipping of four blacks found guilty of 
violence, while he acquitted four police officers who had broken into a 
white woman's house on suspicions that she was conducting sexual 
relations with a black man – something considered then in South Africa 
as a serious crime.
In another incident, Goldstone sentenced two young black men merely for 
being in possession of a video tape showing a speech given by one of the 
senior officials in Nelson Mandela's party.
In response to sections of the study presented to him, Goldstone said 
that he has always been opposed to the death penalty, but because was 
acting within a legal system in which the death penalty exists, his 
hands were tied. He also claimed that he was obligated to honor the laws 
of the country, even under Apartheid rule, and could not find enough 
mitigating evidence to spare the defendants from execution.
Goldstone claimed that he never discriminated against black defendants 
and acted to the best of his abilities to act fairly, though he was 
sometimes morally opposed to the laws he was upholding. He noted that he 
was equally committed to maintain equality and to uphold the law, two 
principles that often clashed.
Lieberman: World to learn about stain
Israeli politicians and the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday welcomed the 
Yedioth Ahronoth investigation, which revealed Goldstone's dark past as 
a cruel judge in South Africa under the Apartheid regime.
A Foreign Ministry official referred to the investigation as "explosive 
PR material". Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman plans to instruct his 
office to send the information published in the newspaper to all of 
Israel's representatives in the world to be used in their PR activities.
Both right-wing and left-wing Knesset members slammed Goldstone and his 
"problematic past".
"The judge who sentenced black people to death and supported what he 
defined as a 'reward for crimes' is a man of double standards," Knesset 
Speaker Reuven Rivlin (Likud) said during a meeting with his Cypriot 
counterpart, who is visiting Israel.
"Such a person should not be allowed to lecture a democratic state 
defending itself against terrorists, who are not subject to the criteria 
of international moral norms," added Rivlin.
MK Yoel Hasson (Kadima), chairman of the Knesset's State Control 
Committee, said the investigation revealed that Goldstone was a 
hypocrite not just towards reality, but also towards himself.
"Although he was involved in clear racist activity, he had no problem 
writing such a report," said MK Hasson. "It's puzzling and disappointing 
that the Foreign Ministry did not check and know in real time about the 
man's past. Had this been done, it would have greatly helped us in our 
activity against the report."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3885999,00.html

 Tehiya Barak, Tzadok Yehezkeli
Che il paese che ha sempre sostenuto il regime dell'apartheid
arrivandogli addirittura a fornirgli materiale per farsi l'atomica
discuta il passato di Goldstone è da guinness della chutzpah

 Yedioth
Yediot investigation.
E' veramente sconfortante vedervi sempre fermi ai tempi della pietra.
Qualcuno non ci sta bene? Diffamiamolo con ogni mezzo.
Goldstone, che e' ebreo come ovvio dal cognome fake (ma perche' usate
cambiare cognome con questi ridicoli?) e' stato messo alla commissione
per Gaza.
Mica han messo un palestinese, han messo un ebreo, neanche lui ha
potuto far rivivere i 400 bambini massacrati, quindi .....
Diffamiamolo, cerchiamo precedenti pedofili, presto che e'
tardi .............. siete penosi.

 discuta il passato di Goldstone è da guinness della chutzpah
Non ti intendi dell'atomica sudafricana.
MGOK