MISREPRESENTING GOLDSTONE

To the editors:

In their April 7 editorial “Reclaiming Goldstone’s Missed Opportunity,” Avishai D. Don, Beth I. Drucker and Yair Rosenberg describe Richard Goldstone’s editorial in The Washington Post as a “retraction” of the UN report on abuses during the war in Gaza that he co-authored.

In fact, Goldstone did not retract the most damning accusations of the more than 500-page report. In a subsequent interview with The Associated Press, Goldstone said that “one correction should be made” but that he has “no reason to believe any part of the report needs to be reconsidered at this time.” Where is the “retraction” in this? Goldstone still believes that Israel’s attack was “designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population.” Other than one incident which Goldstone says should be corrected, he sees no need to reconsider the Goldstone Report’s most damning claim: Israel used indiscriminate force in densely populated areas to collectively punish Palestinians in Gaza.

The authors’ misreading of Goldstone’s editorial is not only disappointing but dangerous. They are encouraging the sentiment espoused by Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai in 2009, who said “Even if the rockets fall in an open air or to the sea, we should hit their infrastructure, and destroy 100 homes for every rocket fired.” Rather than hold Israeli leaders accountable for the war crimes they order, the authors give Israel the green light to continue engaging in collective punishment in the future.

Abdelnasser A. Rashid

Cambridge, Mass.

April 8, 2011

Abdelnasser A. Rashid '11-‘12 is a social studies concentrator in Leverett House.

IDENTIFYING TRANSGENDER

To the editors:

The lead to the April 4 news article “Judge Lu To Hear Kirkland Case” unnecessarily draws attention to Debbie Moccia’s self-identification as transgender. The article describes Moccia as “a Level 3 sex offender and trans-identified” with a history of suicide threats. Including Moccia’s gender at the head of the article, especially amid a sentence that frames her suicide threats as a habitual recurrence, implies that her behavior is somehow tied to her transgenderism. While we hope this implication was unintentional, its resonance with stereotypes of transgender and gender non-conforming people as mentally unstable and dangerous makes it difficult to ignore.

Given The Crimson’s repeated calls for attention to the needs of transgender individuals and communities, we are anxious for a commitment to this ideal in its own reporting. We urge The Crimson to consider the contextual implications of reporting on gender identity in the future.

Levi Roth ’14

Marco Chan ’11