When the Goldstone Report was released in September 2009, it quickly became the report heard round the world. The United Nations Human Rights Council investigation of the 2008-09 Gaza conflict shook the international community with its unflinching look at the outrages unleashed on a captive population, and it deeply rattled Israel with its call for accountability for war crimes committed by both Israel and Hamas. Last month the lead author of the report, Justice Richard Goldstone, once again made headlines when he wrote an essay in The Washington Post "reconsidering" one of the key findings of the report: the targeting of civilians by Israel. The piece has been seized on by Israel's supporters to try to discredit the report once and for all.
Come hear a distinguished panel of experts, including a co-author of the report, discuss the fallout of Goldstone's Op-Ed and the ongoing need for accountability for the crimes of Operation Cast Lead. More than 18 months after it was released, the Goldstone Report remains as critical as ever.
Culture Project and Mondoweiss are pleased to present Blueprint for Accountability: Gaza, Goldstone and the Crisis of Impunity in association with Adalah-NY, Center for Constitutional Rights, CODEPINK, Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace,Jews Say No, Haymarket Books, The Nation, The Nation Institute and Umbrage Editins. The evening will feature photos from Kent Klich's Gaza Photalbum (Umbrage Editions).
Bio
Noura Erakat
Noura Erakat is a Palestinian attorney and activist. She is currently an adjunct professor of international human rights law in the Middle East at Georgetown University and the Legal Advocacy Coordinator for the Badil Center for Palestinian Refugee and Residency Rights. Most recently she served as Legal Counsel for a Congressional Subcommittee in the House of Representatives. Prior to her time on Capitol Hill, Noura received a New Voices Fellowship to work as the national grassroots organizer and legal advocate at the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation where she helped seed BDS campaigns nationally as well as support the cases brought against two former Israeli officials in U.S. federal courts for alleged war crimes. Prior to attending law school, she helped launch the divestment campaign along with the Students for Justice in Palestine at UC Berkeley.
Laura Flanders
Former Air America Radio host, Laura Flanders is the host and founder of GRITtv with Laura Flanders, a daily talk show for people who want to do more than talk. She is the author of the New York Times best-seller, BUSHWOMEN: Tales of a Cynical Species and Blue GRIT: True Democrats Take Back Politics from the Politicians She also writes for The Nation and The Huffington Post and is a regular contributor to MSNBC's "The Ed Show" and "Countdown" with Keith Olbermann. She has appeared on shows from "Real Time" with Bill Maher to Bill O’Reilly's Factor.
Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein is an award-winning journalist, author, and filmmaker. Her first book, the international bestseller No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies, was translated into twenty-eight languages and called "a movement bible" by The New York Times.
She writes an internationally syndicated column for The Nation and The Guardian and reported from Iraq for Harper's Magazine. In 2004, she released The Take, a feature documentary about Argentina's occupied factories, co-produced with director Avi Lewis.
She is a former Miliband Fellow at the London School of Economics and holds an honorary Doctor of Civil Laws degree from the University of King's College, Nova Scotia.
Lizzy Ratner
Lizzy Ratner is a journalist in New York City. She is co-editor of The Goldstone Report: The Legacy of the Landmark Investigation of the Gaza Conflict.
Trudie Styler
Trudie Styler is an English actress and producer. She is the second wife of the musician Sting.
Col. Desmond Travers
Desmond Travers is a retired Irish soldier and peace-keeper. Since retirement he has studied international law and continued working in peace-keeping, most recently as one of the authors of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, or Goldstone Report.
Activist Noura Erakat and author Naomi Klein discuss how the academic critique of Israeli statehood has been precluded. "The fear is that the U.S. political establishment will institutionalize it to the point where now there are discussions in the Department of Justice to equate the anti-Semitism to the criticism of Israel," argues Erakat.
Journalist Lizzy Ratner discusses why the United States has so forcefully condemned the Goldstone Report's findings on the military activities of Israel in Gaza. "If Israel is held to account, well then maybe this will set a precedent so the U.S. will have to be held to account too," says Ratner.
@theknopfknows Wow. You know, if you had written that in using properly cased letters, and given grammar at least some small consideration, I might not have been convinced. But I think what really brought your argument home WAS THE CHOICE TO WRITE IT IN ALL CAPS. THAT REALLY HELPS TO MAKE YOUR OTHERWISE ONLY MARGINALLY COHERENT POINT.
@theknopfknows not that ALL CAPITALS is a marker for ...well, let's be kind, an overly enthusiastic poster.
ALL CAPITALS , for me, is a sure way to be passed over as a waste of my time.
It is the equivalent of screaming!!! .
We know and can see that suicide bombers target civilians!
Where is your outrage at the PLO?
What is too much, too little, or just right to stop the crimes of the PLO?
I see and hear self loathing and one side!
What is the PLO plan?
PLO war crimes?
UN war crimes?
Lets go back to ROMAN war crimes! eh!
How many people with white flags shot or blew up or killed others?
These civilians make me sick! They do not know what they are talking about!
And an Irish man giving me a lecture! PLEASE
SALT all it! Buffer ZONES save lives! all 4,000 meters wide
EZ to do with the sea water and hoses and pumps
Accountability?
How about the support of the PLO propoganda?
What about your own contribution to the wipe Isreal off the face of the Earth crowd? Think you are cleaver? Think you are with it?
Just more animals on the farm spreading the double speak of your pig friends!
SHAME on all of you!
No reason No thought Just hate and some self loather types!
@ Fora2
Who is the average Palesttinian?
How many live in Jordan? The USA? The UK?
If the UN had not created and maintained the hate camps for 60 years the world would be a better place.
Know your history!
Know your enemy!
Know the talk of "The Animal Farm" and "1984" and the hate mongers like the PLO!
Israel has a right to exist, but when will Zionist wackos stop stealing Palestinian land in East Jerusalem & the West Bank building ILLEGAL settlements?
When will American media show Palestinians in Gaza being oppressed like "prisoners" in a giant jail -- or the atrocities against civilians committed by Israelis in their attacks on Lebanon & Gaza?
When will Israeli APARTHEID stop?
When will Israel listen to the Israeli Peace Movement & give an average Palestinian justice?
No justice, no peace!
YOU TUBE Arabian king of Mecca designated Jews to rejoin country men to re-settle & govern Palestine 1919. LISTEN CAREFULLY TO THE TRUTH:
THE ARAB SPRING, sorry again the truth is ALL THESE protests have and still is CIA-USA generated, IT IS NOT A PEOPLE´S MOVEMENT. THAT ISA THE MASK: SO NO SUCH THING AS ARAB SPRING ONLY ARAB FOOLS FOOLED BY USA-CIA. ALQAEDA BOOGIE MAN BELONGS TO USA DRONE MASTER OBAMA-GATES, LOOK BEN LADEN 20 year employee of USA-CIA. NICE WORDS FROM THESE LADIES BUT THE MILITARY MEN RUN THE SHOW AND THAT IS CLASSIFIED: USELESS ACTION. RESISTENCE TO AIPAC IS USELESS BECAUSE YOU KNOW NOT THE CIA SECRETS THAT ARE NOT SO SECRET UNDER YOUR NOSE LIKE MASONS: AIPAC IS NOT THE PROBLEM; YOU THE PUBLIC JUST DO NOT KNOW THE TRUTH : EVERYTHING IS A SECRET: