Justice Richard Goldstone, author of the United Nations report that found evidence of war crimes committed by Israel and Hamas during last winter's Gaza conflict, will speak at Brandeis on Nov. 5, the Office of Communications announced in a University press release last Wednesday. Goldstone, who is also the chair of the advisory board of the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life at Brandeis, will engage in discussion with Dore Gold, former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations and current President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. The event will be co-sponsored by the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies and the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life.

This will be first time that Goldstone discusses the Gaza report publicly with a senior Israeli figure, according to the press release. There will a question-and-answer session after the two speeches, Ethics Center Director Dan Terris said.

The President of the United Nations Human Rights Council established the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict in April "to investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law that might have been committed at any time in the context of the military operations that were conducted in Gaza," according to the report.

The Israeli government declined to cooperate with the mission because it considered the mandate biased against Israel.

The report, released Sept. 15, details evidence of war crimes committed by both Israel and Hamas. The U.N. Human Rights Council endorsed the report on Oct. 16. The report recommends that the U.N. Security Council refer the issue to the International Criminal Court in the Hague if either side fails to establish domestic investigations of the allegations.

The event will take place at 5 p.m in the Levin Ballroom, Global Communications and Operations Director Charles Radin said.

Radin added that he anticipated that off-campus visitors would be able to attend but that the University is also exploring the use of live-streaming. Organizers are also leaning toward limiting the questions to Brandeis students, he said.

"There are groups at both extremes off campus, and they sometimes put aside civility," Radin said. "Something that I'm really confident of . is that if this is limited to Brandeis students, the questions will be pointed. They'll be sharp and they'll be civil."

"As a democracy, we respect open debate and we respect the job of a university to conduct conversations on issues, even the most passionate issues, so I have no problem with Brandeis," Israeli Consul General to New England Nadav Tamir said in an interview.

"But I'm very concerned about the lack of understanding of how dangerous this report is to the ability of democracies to face asymmetric threats by terrorists and also for the prospects of peace in the Middle East," he said.

Tamir said that he hoped somebody like Goldstone "would actually invest more time, and maybe at Brandeis it will be a good opportunity to think about what alternatives do democracies like Israel have when our citizens are being attacked by people who use their own civilians as human shields. What does he suggest that we do?"

University faculty and administration also discussed with the Justice their feelings about the upcoming visit.

"I think Brandeis is honored to be able to host this event," Provost Marty Krauss said.

"It's useful to have Mr. Goldstone present his remarks on the report and to have another voice that may not have read the report the same way," she added.

"What we're trying to create here is the paradigm for how an institution such as Brandeis conducts itself. Thus we have two differing views and students will be able to ask questions without the [speakers] preparing themselves for the questions," Director of the Israel Studies Center Prof. Ilan Troen (NEJS) said.

"This is not a debate, there will be no vote taken of who won or who lost, and we don't know if anyone's mind will change, but [what] we're really hoping for is to clarify issues on a topic that's not only important for the Arab-Israeli conflict, but it's an issue of ethics and warfare. These are also American issues," he said.

The Israeli Studies Center did not seek to invite an Israeli government official to the event on purpose, Troen said.

"Government representatives have to speak an official line; we wanted people who had decided viewpoints, an Israeli who was experienced in the conduct of foreign policy, . but we wanted that individual to be free to speak for himself or herself. . We wanted this to be a propaganda-free environment," he said.

Troen added that "we did not want to have both an Israeli or a Palestinian because that would have distracted and could have turned the event into another incident of Arabs and Israelis arguing about points we already know a great deal about."

Prof. Gordon Fellman (SOC), who teaches "Sociology of the Israeli-Palestinian Confrontation," said that he did not think it was necessary for an Israeli representative to be part of the event.

Fellman added that a recent event featuring Deputy Israeli Prime Minister Dan Meridor did not feature another speaker.

"Whenever somebody making the case for Israel uncritically and ignoring the reality of the occupation [comes]," he said, "there seems be no need for debate between speakers."

He added, "It's good Goldstone is coming; it's sad that that format was set up-I think it's a format that will detract from the power of the Goldstone report, from the fascinating dynamics of how that report has been received and brutalized, and it will distract massively from the reality of what Israel did in Gaza."

Brandeis students in Middle East advocacy groups reacted positively to the visit, and expressed interest in how Goldstone views the reactions to the report.

"I think it's going to be very interesting because I think there is going to be a lot of disagreement between Goldstone and Gold," Heddy Ben-Atar '11, president of the Brandeis Israel Public Affairs Committee, said.

"The report has good intentions, but it was executed incorrectly-with many factual errors and a clear bias," she said. Ben-Atar said that having two speakers was positive because of the opportunity to listen "to people who don't necessarily think exactly what you think. . This kind of discussion is exactly what I think is missing in the Goldstone report."

She said that BIPAC and the Brandeis Zionist Alliance would distribute flyers in the runup to the event and were working on organizing an event with Shai Feldman and Khalil Shikaki from the Crown Center for Middle East Studies.

"I'm excited to observe the Brandeis campus as they embrace him or don't embrace him," Lisa Hanania '11, co-president of Brandeis Students for Justice in Palestine, said.

Given his credibility and the negative reaction to the report, she said she was interested in hearing Goldstone's thoughts on the public's reaction and the Palestinian rejection of the report.

Ideally, she said, if there is a representative of the Israeli perspective, a representative of the Palestinian point of view should also be present. However, Hanania said, this would be difficult because there are differences between views expressed by the Palestinian government and the Palestinian public.