Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Goldstone was apartheid judge who executed 28 blacks, receives Tikkun Award

by Lurker

'Goldstone sent 28 SA blacks to death'
Man who headed Cast Lead c'tee reportedly served as apartheid judge.

Jurist Richard Goldstone was responsible for sending at least 28 black South Africans to death when they appeared before him during the apartheid regime, Yediot Aharonot reported Wednesday.

According to the report, Goldstone, who headed the UN committee which investigated alleged war crimes perpetrated by the IDF during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, handed down the sentences while serving as a judge in the South African Court of Appeals.

Goldstone presided during the 1980s and 1990s, and wrote in one of his rulings that the gallows are the only deterrent for killers.

However, he responded to the report by saying that he was a part of the system and had to respect the laws of the state, occasionally having to enforce laws he was opposed to.

The former judge was also responsible for sending four men accused of violent acts to receive lashes alongside the upholding of other racist laws, Yediot Aharonot said.
Meanwhile, Rabbi Michael Lerner and his Jewish leftist Tikkun magazine have decided to give Richard Goldstone their annual Tikkun Award for work to uphold Jewish values. In his announcement, Rabbi Lerner wrote:
"We in the peace community both in Israel and around the world see Justice Goldstone as upholding the best ethical values of the Jewish community."


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10 comments:

HZ said...

Ugh. Publicizing this will help no one.

Anonymous said...

HZ: Yeah, people said the same thing about Takana and R' Moti Elon.

Anonymous said...

"Ugh. Publicizing this will help no one."

Also repeated by:

Richard Nixon on Watergate
Vatican on Irish clergy sex scandal
Ehud Olmert on HolylandGate

Vox Populi said...

And this proves that Cast Lead never happened! Yes!

Shlomo said...

"And this proves that Cast Lead never happened! Yes!"

Of course Cast Lead happened, and the way it happened is something we can be proud of.

This post just shows that, contrary to common opinion, Goldstone is not a saint, so his description of Cast Lead should not be taken as beyond criticism.

Anonymous said...

LOL Vox Populi. The managers of this blog only wish...

Lurker- if Ynet has the courtesy to use the word "reportedly", and report it in the context of what was the S. African justice system in which he served, then why is it beyond you?

Vox Populi said...

>This post just shows that, contrary to common opinion, Goldstone is not a saint, so his description of Cast Lead should not be taken as beyond criticism.

What were we taking it as before? My understanding is that Richard Goldstone is a guy who knows quite a lot about war crimes, and indeed, has worked in bringing war criminals to justice. He is also something of a legal scholar, being a former high court justice in South Africa, post-Apartheid. Goldstone also believes himself to be a Zionist, and, consequently, at least thinks he has a lot of goodwill towards Israel.

What's changed now? You found out he worked as a judge in Apartheid South Africa? I didn't know this was a secret. We knew he was a judge before the fall of Apartheid. One would assume he probably had to enforce some laws. I'm surprised that he only sent 26 blacks to prison. I think we can be sure that other judges were worse. Apparently, black South Africans didn't think too poorly of him or he wouldn't have been appointed to head the Truth and Reconciliation Commission or to be one of the first post-Apartheid high court justices. Surely the South African government was aware he was an Apartheid era judge.

No one argued he was a saint, although I'm sure he's a nice guy. But even if he wasn't such a good guy, who cares? Did you take his criticism more seriously before? Or now, do you think that he knows less about war crimes because he enforced Apartheid? Perhaps you think because he enforced Apartheid he is a self-hating Jew or anti-Semite? Those both seem to be non sequiturs.

Nachum said...

Hey, I have no problem if he sent murderers to be executed. But in the world he travels in and which lionizes him, that's a MAJOR no-no, especially if they were black. (Newsflash to Vox: He didn't "send them to jail.") Moreover, under apartheid, I imagine the boundary between guilty and not guilty when it came to blacks was a bit more fuzzy.

But it's entertaining to see leftists like Vox here defending someone who was "just following orders." I thought we got past that sixty years ago.

Let me quote Wikipedia on the death of Roland Freisler, who was the head of the Nazis' "People's Court," "only enforced the law," and was killed in a bombing raid:

"A foreign correspondent reported, 'Apparently nobody regretted his death.' Luise Jodl, the widow of General Alfred Jodl, recounted more than 25 years later that she had been working at the Luetzow Hospital when Freisler's body was brought in, and that a worker commented, 'It is God's verdict.' According to Mrs. Jodl, 'Not one person said a word in reply.'"

And that was the Nazis themselves...

JoeSettler said...

You're forgetting about his efforts in Serbia to bring that most dastardly war criminal Gruban Malic to justice.

Anonymous said...

I'm not clear on something.
Is the claim that he ruled unfairly against the innocent? Is it that he served as a judge under apartheid? Is it that he meted out the death penalty, and that's always wrong?
What was his sin? Were these defendants guilty and he gave the sentence that the law required, under the laws of South Africa at that time? Did he show favoritism to whites in his rulings? Were his specific rulings unjust?
What is the issue that is being discussed? If the death penalty is the issue, then woulddn'tmany U.S,judges also be guilty of whatever the accusation is, just by dispensing this sentence?
Can you clear thisup for me?

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