Her office said the UN high commissioner for human rights would visit Israel, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank until Friday.
On Monday, Pillay was to meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, prime minister Salam Fayyad and other officials in the West Bank city of Ramallah, her spokesman Rupert Colville told AFP.
In Israel, she is to meet President Shimon Peres, cabinet ministers and MPs and the chief justice of the supreme court.
Her Geneva office earlier said the visit was requested by both the Israeli and Palestinian governments.
Israel has traditionally been sharply critical of UN human rights bodies and their criticism of violations in the Palestinian territories, and has refused to cooperate with some of the world body`s rights experts.
Successive UN human rights chiefs have been highly critical of Israel`s settlement plans, its Gaza blockade, the building of a barrier between Israel and Palestinian territories in the West Bank and other restrictions.
The Jewish state is still smarting from a September 2009 report by a committee appointed by the UN Human Rights Council in the wake of Israel`s war in Gaza the previous winter that killed 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.
The report by South African judge Richard Goldstone accused both Israel and Palestinian groups of war crimes during the three-week conflict in December 2008-January 2009.
A joint statement by 13 Israeli and Palestinian rights organisations issued to coincide with Pillay`s visit, complained there had been no follow-up to the committee`s findings.
"Is the Goldstone report dead?" it asked. "Over two years have passed since the end of the Israeli offensive ... on the Gaza Strip, and justice for victims has yet to be addressed.
"Should these victims give up on the UN in their search for accountability," it said (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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