Statement by Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon to the Knesset plenum, responding to questions on the Goldstone Report
The Goldstone Report is a fraudulent, biased and unprofessional document, and it is one of the things used to censure the State of Israel by its enemies. There is a reason that not only Israel has voiced opposition to this report, and not only the United States has voiced opposition to this report, and not only Canada and Australia and New Zealand, but also the enlightened countries of the West, such as Great Britain and other European countries. And all those that did support the report are those same countries who do not embrace any vestige of human rights.
Let's face it - what did Hamas do here? It fired at innocent civilians and protected itself by hiding behind civilians. It committed two crimes.
There are things that need to be investigated and there are things that we are investigating. To date, there have been 23 investigations. In-depth investigations are conducted when there is reliable reporting, when there are things that need to be investigated. That is what we are doing and will continue to do, but not because of the Goldstone Report, and not because someone takes us to task, or rebukes us, or preaches morals to us. We do it because of who we are, because of what we believe in, because of the moral values that have been ingrained in the people of Israel throughout the generations and on which the State of Israel was founded.
We will continue to investigate it, but certainly not because of this report, since the report is purely political and designed to attack Israel.
It is truly a shame that the Palestinian Authority, which we believed for a moment would reject the whole matter, changed their minds because of internal pressures. This also indicates that it might be very difficult to rely on people who change their minds in such a manner because of public pressure. How can agreements be signed with people like that? I don’t know yet. That is something that must be discussed as a separate issue.
But with regard to this report, it will never come to be. And the Israeli Knesset is certainly not the place to discuss the entire spectrum of Operation Cast Lead, in any kind of official framework that even touches on or mentions the Goldstone Report. It is simply a mockery. It is simply sacrilege.
So what I propose to you, Members of Knesset, is to completely eliminate this item from the agenda regarding the Goldstone Report. I say here again that any issue that needs to be investigated is being, and will be, investigated. Thank you.