WIESENTHAL CENTER URGES NYU TO CANCEL GOLDSTONE KEYNOTE
The Simon Wiesenthal Center is urging New York University President John Sexton to cancel the University's invitation to Judge Richard Goldstone to deliver a keynote address, “The Role of Lawyers in a Globalized World,” at the prestigious Hauser Global Law School Program’s annual dinner later this month.
“This is not a time to honor the author of a fundamentally biased report that indicts Israel’s self-defense against 8,000 rockets from Gaza’s Hamastan as a crime against humanity,” charged Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, adding that, “This shameful document provides Hamas, which deploys its terror infrastructure within and among Gaza’s civilians with a virtual free pass, while accusing Israel of deliberately targeting civilians. Cooper said that the Goldstone Report has already been adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Council, and will soon be sent to Hague by the United Nations General Assembly. “It has already been leveraged by enemies of the Jewish state to seek indictments against former Foreign Minister Tzippi Livni and other Israeli officials for the crime of defending their nation against Hamas would-be Genociders,” he said. “Should Goldstone’s outrageous recommendations be adopted, international law will be used to render defenseless Israel against onslaughts by non-state adversaries against its civilians,” he added.
Harvard’s renowned Professor of Law Alan Dershowitz has denounced the Goldstone Report as, “so filled with lies, distortions and blood libels that it could have been drafted by Hamas extremists. Wait—in effect, it was!”
“The bottom line is that in 2010, Judge Goldstone has no business lecturing tomorrow’s lawyers about justice. We urge President Sexton, who has a courageous record combating anti-Israel scapegoating, to cancel Goldstone’s speech. Friends of true justice and peace await NYU’s decision,” Cooper concluded.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).
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