Louise Arbour, the UN Human Rights High Commissioner, actuallly WITNESSED a violation of Israeli human rights, and said nothing—absolutely nothing—condemning the palestinians’ firing rockets at civilians.
“Arbour’s convoy was coming into Sderot at the time — she had spent the night in Gaza which obviously is very close. The rockets landed about 200 metres from the convoy, as it passed the industrial zone. She arrived at the mayor’s office — where we had been waiting — and she was a bit shaken. Within a few minutes of meeting the mayor she asked if she could go and see the damage. So off we went.”
But don’t worry: Arbour says she understands how the Israelis feel.
Louise Arbour, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, who then went to the site of the rocket impact in Sderot, said she could understand the sense of vulnerability and despair among the town’s residents.
Ms. Arbour, who was on the second day of a five-day tour of the region, recalled that one of her main areas of concern was the protection of civilians, stressing that governments had a duty to shield their people, although within the bounds of international humanitarian law and human rights law.
Apparently, she can only recall that concern for palestinians. Here’s what the UN News Center has to say about her trip to Beit Hanoun the day before:
20 November 2006 – The top United Nations human rights official said today that “massive†violations against civilians had taken place in the Gaza Strip as she began a five-day tour of the region following Israel’s deadly assault on the occupied Palestinian territory earlier this month.
Ms. Arbour told journalists that an independent, credible and thorough inquiry was needed to determine where responsibility lies for the deaths in Beit Hanoun, which occurred on 8 November.
At least 82 Palestinians have been killed since the IDF began its latest offensive in the Gaza Strip near the end of last month and one Israeli woman was killed last week when a rocket fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza struck the town of Sderot in southern Israel.
The High Commissioner told journalists that the lack of accountability for human rights in Gaza leaves locals with no one to turn to when there is a breach.
“The call for protection has to be answered. We cannot continue to see civilians, who are not the authors of their own misfortune, suffer to the extent of what I see here,†she said.
Quite a difference, isn’t it? She actually, physically, sees with her own eyes the rocket landing in Sderot, and she “understands the sense of vulnerability.”
Yaakov Yaakobov, the Israeli who was critically injured by the kassam, died of his wounds. Arbour hasn’t had a word to say about that yet.