UN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSIONER: ISRAEL WORSE THAN HEZBOLLAH

UN Human Rights Commissioner: Israel Worse Than Hizballah (LGF)

French Canadian Louise Arbour, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, says that even though Hizballah and Hamas deliberately target civilians with indiscriminate terror attacks, Israel is much worse.

Israel could be considered deserving of more blame for its actions in the Lebanon war than Hizbullah, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post Thursday. Asked by the Post if there was a distinction under human rights law between missile attacks aimed at killing civilians and military strikes in which civilians are unintentionally killed, Arbour said the two could not be equated. “In one case you could have, for instance, a very objectionable intent - the intent to harm civilians, which is very bad - but effectively not a lot of harm is actually achieved,” she said. “But how can you compare that with a case where you may not have an intent but you have recklessness [in which] civilian casualties are foreseeable? The culpability or the intent may not sound as severe, but the actual harm is catastrophic.” ... According to criminal law, “there is very little distinction between recklessness and intent,” she said. “It is a small distinction as to whether you desire the result, or you foresee it as virtually certain and you do not care. In terms of culpability there is not a lot of difference between recklessness and intent.” Arbour indicated that this could mean that Israel was guilty of human rights violations for its actions in Lebanon. “When you kill civilians virtually each time [in a military attack], at some point you have to ask yourself, ‘Wasn’t that foreseeable that so many would be killed?” she said. “That is where I think you start having to engage in the possibility that it is somewhat culpable.”

When terrorists deliberately use civilians as cover—and when the civilians themselves are terrorist supporters—the deaths of civilians are inevitable. But the ones to blame for these deaths are the murderers who hide among them, the ruthless killers who cynically manipulate idiots like Louise Arbour. Arbour and her fellow guardians of simple-minded “morality” have no answer for the tactics of the killers, except to “urge” them to renounce violence.

Speaking to reporters at a press conference in Jerusalem Thursday night, she criticized the Palestinians for launching Kassam rockets against Israel. The use of the rockets was “in breach of international humanitarian law and their use must cease immediately,” she said. In her meeting with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas during her visit, Arbour said, she urged him to use “every legitimate means possible” to stop the rockets and to bring to justice those who launch them.

Good luck with that. Arbour is also known for her willingness to sacrifice free speech to appease radical Islam: Prophet cartoons worry UN commissioner.