By JPOST.COM STAFF
After filing harsh and detailed accusations against Israel's conduct in Operation Cast Lead in the document released on Tuesday bearing his name, Judge Richard Goldstone expressed disappointment at the public outcry against the findings of the report commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council.
"I'm not surprised but disappointed for not seeing any detailed response," Goldstone told Channel 1 on Wednesday evening. "There was a very quick rejection of the report, even before anyone read it."
He firmly rejected the notion that his committee and its findings were biased.
"I deny that completely, I was independent, nobody dictated any outcome... the outcome of the report which was the result [of our independent investigation]," he reiterated.
When asked what differences, if any, he would have made in the investigation and report, Goldstone replied: "The only difference I would have preferred was that the Israeli government would have told us what to investigate, that's what I asked."
"The Hamas rockets constitute war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity," he stressed in Wednesday's interview.
"My first wish and hope is that there would be open inquiry in Israel," Goldstone said, continuing in the vein of the committee's proposal that the UN Security Council require Israel to begin independent investigations into the "serious violations" of international law referred to in the report.
"Israel can do it if it wishes, it is a matter of will and [an Israeli investigation] would prevent international involvement," he said.
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