This is common for Mme. Arbour, the Montreal-born former Supreme Court of Canada justice. She rose to international prominence ten years ago when she indicted former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic with war crimes while he was still his country's head of state.
Arbour visited the bombed-out house of the Athamna family in the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun on Monday, convincing her that local Arab civilians are suffering from "catastrophic human-rights violations." (On November 8, errant IDF shells accidentally destroyed the Athamnas' concrete house and the building next door, killing 20 clan members.)
On Tuesday, Arbour witnessed two Kassam missile attacks from Gaza on the Israeli city of Sderot – in which Yaakov Yaakobov, 43, died of his wounds. Nevertheless she refused to condemn the Arab attacks on Israeli civilians. She also refused to meet with the families of three IDF soldiers kidnapped earlier this year.
Touring the damaged western-Negev poultry processing plant where the fatal rocket had just fallen, Arbour told reporters that Israel "has a responsibility to defend its citizens, but has to do so only by legal means.
"It has to do so in line with international law, including international humanitarian law, but it has a primary responsibility to protect people who are under its authorities."
Arbour's comments in Gaza angered Israeli officials, and prompted critique yesterday from B'nai Brith Canada, which called her fact-finding mission "yet another attempt by the UN body to delegitimize the Jewish state."
“This latest trip to the region by Mme. Arbour who has turned a blind eye to the abhorrent Palestinian practice of using civilians as human shields, only reinforces the anti-Israel bias of the UN,” said Frank Dimant, B’nai Brith Canada’s executive vice president.
"We can only hope that this dangerous encounter [with Kassam rockets] will translate into new insight by the high commissioner into a day in the life of Israeli citizens in Sderot, and elsewhere in the country, who continue to experience enormous suffering and loss because of ongoing, deadly Palestinian terrorist attacks aimed at them."
Israeli officials were also concerned about Arbour's appearance of bias.
"I hope the high commissioner will, after her visit to Israel, be convinced that we're not talking about serious breaches of human rights, as she said, but a country defending itself against terror," said Daniel Meron, head of the human-rights department at Israel's Foreign Ministry.
At the Yad Vashem on Wednesday, officials shepherded Arbour, 59, through the Moshe Safdie-designed Holocaust museum while keeping reporters at a distance. Yad Vashem press liaison Estee Ya'ari cautioned journalists that Arbour would only takes questions related to her visit to the Holocaust memorial. There was no press conference.
Christopher Gunness, accompanying Arbour's fact finding mission as spokesman for the Office of the UN Special Co-ordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, defended Arbour's efforts to absorb the impact on both sides of the conflict.
"I haven't seen B'nai Brith's criticisms, but I will say that Ms. Arbour is one of the most impressive UN officials I have dealt with in 20 years and a person who takes an extremely considered and balanced view based on international law," Gunness said.
"Clearly, she is condemning all attacks on civilians, whether in Gaza or Israel proper."
Appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada in 1999, Arbour also served as a high-profile international war crimes prosecutor. In February 2004, she was appointed UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, a position she took officially on July 1, 2004. She replaced Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was killed in the Canal Hotel bombing in Baghdad, Iraq, along with other members of his staff, in August 2003.
Arbour used her position at the UN to express her concern over the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy.
In July, during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, she stated that "those in positions of command and control" could be subject to "personal criminal responsibility" for their actions in the conflict.
Her allegations of war crimes led Alan Baker, Israel's ambassador to Canada, to say he "completely reject[s] Louise Arbour's warning."
Arbour visited the bombed-out house of the Athamna family in the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun on Monday, convincing her that local Arab civilians are suffering from "catastrophic human-rights violations." (On November 8, errant IDF shells accidentally destroyed the Athamnas' concrete house and the building next door, killing 20 clan members.)
On Tuesday, Arbour witnessed two Kassam missile attacks from Gaza on the Israeli city of Sderot – in which Yaakov Yaakobov, 43, died of his wounds. Nevertheless she refused to condemn the Arab attacks on Israeli civilians. She also refused to meet with the families of three IDF soldiers kidnapped earlier this year.
Touring the damaged western-Negev poultry processing plant where the fatal rocket had just fallen, Arbour told reporters that Israel "has a responsibility to defend its citizens, but has to do so only by legal means.
"It has to do so in line with international law, including international humanitarian law, but it has a primary responsibility to protect people who are under its authorities."
Arbour's comments in Gaza angered Israeli officials, and prompted critique yesterday from B'nai Brith Canada, which called her fact-finding mission "yet another attempt by the UN body to delegitimize the Jewish state."
“This latest trip to the region by Mme. Arbour who has turned a blind eye to the abhorrent Palestinian practice of using civilians as human shields, only reinforces the anti-Israel bias of the UN,” said Frank Dimant, B’nai Brith Canada’s executive vice president.
"We can only hope that this dangerous encounter [with Kassam rockets] will translate into new insight by the high commissioner into a day in the life of Israeli citizens in Sderot, and elsewhere in the country, who continue to experience enormous suffering and loss because of ongoing, deadly Palestinian terrorist attacks aimed at them."
Israeli officials were also concerned about Arbour's appearance of bias.
"I hope the high commissioner will, after her visit to Israel, be convinced that we're not talking about serious breaches of human rights, as she said, but a country defending itself against terror," said Daniel Meron, head of the human-rights department at Israel's Foreign Ministry.
At the Yad Vashem on Wednesday, officials shepherded Arbour, 59, through the Moshe Safdie-designed Holocaust museum while keeping reporters at a distance. Yad Vashem press liaison Estee Ya'ari cautioned journalists that Arbour would only takes questions related to her visit to the Holocaust memorial. There was no press conference.
Arbour and David Silberklang, Editor of Yad Vashem Studies
Christopher Gunness, accompanying Arbour's fact finding mission as spokesman for the Office of the UN Special Co-ordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, defended Arbour's efforts to absorb the impact on both sides of the conflict.
"I haven't seen B'nai Brith's criticisms, but I will say that Ms. Arbour is one of the most impressive UN officials I have dealt with in 20 years and a person who takes an extremely considered and balanced view based on international law," Gunness said.
"Clearly, she is condemning all attacks on civilians, whether in Gaza or Israel proper."
Appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada in 1999, Arbour also served as a high-profile international war crimes prosecutor. In February 2004, she was appointed UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, a position she took officially on July 1, 2004. She replaced Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was killed in the Canal Hotel bombing in Baghdad, Iraq, along with other members of his staff, in August 2003.
Arbour used her position at the UN to express her concern over the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy.
In July, during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, she stated that "those in positions of command and control" could be subject to "personal criminal responsibility" for their actions in the conflict.
Her allegations of war crimes led Alan Baker, Israel's ambassador to Canada, to say he "completely reject[s] Louise Arbour's warning."