From Judge Goldstone

 

From: "rjgoldstone...
To: maurice@t,,,>
Date: Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:34:49 +0200
Subject: RE: Shana Tova

..I have been under huge pressure with regard not only to the report but my teaching and other commitments. I am not in a position to respond in detail to the many e-mails I have been receiving. I would say, however that I will make inquries and support all the submissions to the Fact Finding Mission being accessible on the web. I would also mention that there was no reliance on Col. Kemp mainly because in our Report we did not deal with the issues he raised regarding the problems of conducting military operations in civilian areas and second-guessing decisions made by soldiers and their commanding officers "in the fog of war". We avoided having to do so in the incidents we decided to investigate.
Warm regards,
Richard Goldstone

Response by Maurice Ostroff

 

Dear Judge Goldstein,

Thank you for your open response to my part 1 memorandum. I appreciate it and thank you for agreeing to my request that all material submitted to the Mission be archived on the web and be available to the public, including of course the memorandum from the Australian lawyers.

However, I have difficulty in understanding your explanation for not inviting Colonel Kemp to give evidence and in particular your statement that you did not deal with the issues he raised regarding the problems of conducting military operations in civilian areas. Is that not precisely what the Mission was dealing with? Had he been invited he could have been asked questions about every military aspect, not just those mentioned in his public appearances.

In view of Colonel Kemp's special expertise I would venture that  your decision to ignore him is in the same unfortunate and mistaken category as the Israel government's decision not to cooperate with your mission.

I suggested in part 2 of my response to the report, that the report should be recalled so as to correct some major deficiencies and if this does occur, I hope that evidence by colonel Kemp will be incorporated.

Sincerely
Maurice Ostroff