Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement is nearly a month past but one person appears to be seeking atonement for his prior sins. Judge Richard Goldstone of the infamous Goldstone Report previously published an op-ed in the Washington Post backtracking on the most serious allegations contained in his report.
Now, in a New York Times op-ed, Goldstone takes on the Israel apartheid slander:
One particularly pernicious and enduring canard that is surfacing again is that Israel pursues “apartheid” policies. …
While “apartheid” can have broader meaning, its use is meant to evoke the situation in pre-1994 South Africa. It is an unfair and inaccurate slander against Israel, calculated to retard rather than advance peace negotiations. …
In Israel, there is no apartheid. Nothing there comes close to the definition of apartheid under the 1998 Rome Statute: “Inhumane acts … committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.”
Can Richard Goldstone be forgiven for his role in one of the worst examples of delegitimization of Israel in recent history? Absolutely not. But using his high profile to combat the very delegitimization that he helped spread is the least he can do to atone for his sins.
© Divuach Ne’eman R”A, 2025
