B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:

It is becoming increasingly evident that Judge Christian Tomuschat is not neutral in his role overseeing the implementation of the Goldstone report’s recommendations and he should step down.

The biased, controversial Goldstone report offered a highly skewed version of events during Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s defensive operation in the Gaza Strip that ended in January 2009 and Tomuschat’s panel is following a similar pattern of bias.

It was recently revealed that in 2002 Tomuschat, a law professor and jurist, reportedly said Israel’s retaliation against “presumed terrorists” was, in effect, another form of terrorism. Compounding this, according to a Jerusalem Post report, in 1996 Tomuschat prepared an advisory analysis for Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat. Furthermore, he wrote in 2002 that states are fundamentally unable to investigate themselves effectively.

It is impossible for him to review and evaluate how Israel is conducting its own investigation into its Gaza actions when he has already concluded that Israel commits acts of “state terrorism.”

Tomuschat should step aside in order for Israel to have any chance of a report without a predetermined outcome.

The panel is scheduled to submit a report on its findings in October.