SAfrican judge who wrote Gaza report to attend grandson’s bar mitzvah, says protest called off

Gaza report judge to attend grandson’s bar mitzvah

JOHANNESBURG — The internationally respected jurist who accused Israel of war crimes in a U.N. report says he will attend his grandson’s bar mitzvah now that he no longer faces protests from Jews upset by the report.

Richard Goldstone told The Associated Press on Saturday that his planned presence at the Jewish rite-of-passage ceremony in South Africa is possible because protests against his attendance were called off.

Goldstone, currently teaching in Washington, has faced criticism in South Africa and elsewhere for finding that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza in 2009. Goldstone concluded both sides committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.

Goldstone is retired from South Africa’s Constitutional Court.