ISRAEL has called on the UN to consign its major report on the Gaza war to "the dustbin of history" after the author, judge Richard Goldstone, expressed regret about key aspects of the report.
Israeli politicians, who had insisted the report was flawed, reacted angrily.
"If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone report would have been a different document," Judge Goldstone wrote in The Washington Post. He admitted that if he had access to all the facts, his report probably would not have accused Israel of war crimes.
"The allegations of intentionality by Israel were based on the deaths of and injuries to civilians in situations where our fact-finding mission had no evidence on which to draw any other reasonable conclusion," he wrote.
"While the investigations published by the Israeli military and recognised in the UN committee's report have established the validity of some incidents that we investigated in cases involving individual soldiers, they also indicate that civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy."
He said Israel's lack of co-operation had meant the inquiry was not able to corroborate several aspects, including how many civilians were killed.
"The Israeli military's numbers have turned out to be similar to those recently furnished by Hamas," he wrote.
The Goldstone report focused on the killing of 29 members of the al-Simouni family.
Judge Goldstone now says: "The shelling of the home was apparently the consequence of an Israeli commander's erroneous interpretation of a drone image, and an Israeli officer is under investigation for having ordered the attack.
"While the length of this investigation is frustrating, it appears that an appropriate process is under way and I am confident that if the officer is found to have been negligent, Israel will respond accordingly."
Judge Goldstone said the original mandate for his inquiry adopted by the UN Human Rights Council "was skewed against Israel" but that he had insisted on changing it.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used the statement to attack the report, saying: "The fact that Goldstone backtracked must lead to the shelving of this report once and for all."
Reactions in the Israeli media were mixed.
"As a Jew, he acted in the most non-Jewish of ways," Ben Caspit wrote in Maariv.
"He betrayed all these principles, played it dumb, granted a rare international prize for evil and denounced anyone attempting to defend himself from him. Richard Goldstone should be forced to continue to confront his conscience, the image reflected in his mirror, until the day he dies."
But Alex Fishman in Yedioth Ahronoth described the judge as an exceptionally courageous man. "It is no small matter for a person of his stature to stand up and confess to all and sundry that he had made a mistake," he wrote.
In Haaretz, Aluf Benn wrote: "Israel achieved a major public relations coup this weekend, comparable to the United Nations rescission of its notorious resolution equating Zionism with racism."
But Benn said Israel had erred in refusing to co-operate with Judge Goldstone and that former minister Isaac Herzog had been correct when he advocated dialogue.
Judge Goldstone admitted he had been wrong in believing Hamas would investigate the behaviour of its forces.
"It was my hope, even if unrealistic, that Hamas would do so, especially if Israel conducted its own investigation," he wrote.
"At minimum I hoped that in the face of a clear finding that its members were committing serious war crimes, Hamas would curtail its attacks.
"Sadly, that has not been the case."
