It undermines efforts to forge a lasting peace with moderate Palestinians

The adoption of the Goldstone Report by the UN Human Rights Council, a misnomer if ever there was one, is yet another politically motivated attempt to undermine the right of Israel to defend itself against terrorism; and proof once more of that body's murky record in upholding its expressed mandate.

This fundamentally flawed report unfairly describes Israel's measures to defend its citizens from terrorist attacks as "war crimes," while essentially whitewashing Hamas's deliberate strategy of targeting civilians, operating within populated areas, and using of human shields.

By casting doubts over Israel's basic motivation for launching its operation against Hamas earlier this year, the report simply dismisses the eight-year-long barrage of more than 12,000 rockets endured by Israeli civilians in the south, and questions Israel's basic right to protect its citizens from harm. In fact, the Goldstone commission's findings blame Israel for even being rocketed in the first place, by labelling such attacks as "reprisals."

Consequently, the message conveyed by Justice Richard Goldstone and company is that terrorism pays.

However appalled by the report's findings, Israel is not at all surprised to see the UN deliver yet another political statement veiled in the jargon of a legal analysis. After all, what should one expect from a "fact-finding mission" commissioned by the Human Rights Council, a body whose obsession with Israel has led it to produce more resolutions condemning Israel than all other nations of the world combined.

When a UN organ that is mandated to deal with human rights across the globe dedicates more time to Israel than to all other trouble-spots put together, it becomes blatantly clear that its agenda is set by clear political motives.

In its blind zeal to demonize Israel, the HRC, a "guardian of human rights" whose membership includes the likes of Saudi Arabia, Cuba and Pakistan, to name a few, has now gone so far as to produce a document that effectively undermines every other democratic nation's fight against terrorism.

This is why it should come as no surprise that the mandate designed by the HRC for the Goldstone mission was so one-sided. In it, the HRC condemned Israel's "massive violations of human rights" and called for the dispatching of "a fact-finding mission to investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law by the occupying power, Israel, against the Palestinian people." Not only did the mandate make no mention whatsoever of possible Palestinian violations, but it first established Israel's guilt, and then sent Goldstone to gather the evidence. As the queen said to Alice in Alice in Wonderland: "Verdict first, evidence later."

Israel can take some comfort in the fact that the democratic minority of HRC members, which includes Canada, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea and several EU states, refused to support the politicized resolution establishing the mission. This sentiment was also echoed by many distinguished human rights leaders, including Mary Robinson, who refused to lead the mission, because it was "guided not by human rights but by politics."

A perfect example of this rests in the fact that the four members appointed by the HRC to take part in the mission went on the record as having condemned Israel prior to having been selected.

The methodology of the mission itself, of course, was no less biased. The unprecedented holding of live telecast hearings clearly demonstrates that political considerations overruled legal prudence. What Gazan would dare to utter a word against the terrorist Hamas in such testimony? The fact that all witnesses were pre-screened and selected, and that none was asked obvious questions pertaining to terrorist activity or to the location of weapons caches supports concerns that this was indeed an orchestrated political campaign.

The Goldstone Report's attempt to present Israel's respected justice system as unable to examine the actions of its own military simply ignores the facts. Investigations by Israel's relevant authorities are indeed underway and its courts remain, as has always been the case, open to all - including Palestinians and NGOs - who seek redress.

Tragically, as a result of this lopsided report, terrorists the world over have now been led to believe that law- abiding democracies can be "handcuffed" by the HRC, and prevented from taking necessary measures to protect their citizens.

The Goldstone Report not only rewards Hamas's terrorism and blatant crimes against humanity, but also undermines efforts to forge a lasting peace with our moderate Palestinian neighbours.

Therefore, Israel calls upon all responsible nations to outright reject it.

Yoram Elron is consul-general of Israel for Quebec and the Atlantic provinces.

© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette