The Goldstone Report on Operation Cast Lead will not go away even if Israel launches an independent inquiry into the campaign, UN Ambassador Gabriela Shalev said Wednesday.
"There are no legal questions here – and we shouldn't be deluding ourselves that the report will disappear if we launch a probe," Shalev said during a discussion held at the Israel Democracy Institute. "We are seeing a murky wave against the State of Israel the likes of which has not been seen in many years."
"It reached the point of de-legitimizing our existence as an independent state," she said.
"We are doing a poor job of explaining our position," Shalev added. "What we have here is an indictment against Israel, against freedom of expression, against the legal establishment, and against the army."
The UN ambassador also slammed the Goldstone Report for being disproportional in the face of other wars raging worldwide.
'We're not scared of a probe'
Social Welfare Minister Yitzhak Herzog, who also took part in the session, said that the report constitutes "big trouble" for Israel and that the political establishment failed in handling the UN inquiry.
"The attitude whereby Israel must automatically boycott anyone who threatens us must disappear," he said, adding that there is no choice but to launch an inquiry into the events of Operation Cast Lead.
"We are not scared of a probe," he said. "We need to undertake a broad diplomatic effort."
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