From Mukesh Kapila
The UN is renowned for clunky acronyms but one is especially apt: Unifil. This is the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, which provides the vanishingly thin sandwich of a buffer between Lebanon and Israel. It is newsworthy because it is now in the way of Israel’s cross-border operations into southern Lebanon and Hezbollah’s shelling of Israel.
Both protagonists have long found Unifil’s presence awkward because they do not want it to discover what they do along the 120-mile-long Blue Line separating them. Yet, that is Unifil’s job – observing and informing on each side – to avoid lethal misunderstandings or resolve them through negotiation.
That is useful in peaceful times but inconvenient during war. So, it is not surprising that the Israeli military have over the past week been shooting at Unifil observation towers, cameras and communications. They don’t want their movements monitored, which Unifil is obliged to do under its rules of transparent engagement.
Hezbollah also does not want information on operations from its bases and tunnels in southern Lebanon to be leaked. Strictly speaking, Unifil liaises not with Hezbollah but with the Lebanese Armed Forces. But the two communicate.
Israel’s distrust of Unifil is compounded by the nationalities of its 1,100 personnel. The largest contributors are Indonesia, Italy, India, Nepal, Malaysia, Spain and China, and the rest span another 43 countries. The great majority of contributing nations are critical of Israel.
In theory, that should not matter as donning the blue helmet commits the wearer to neutrality and impartiality, the bedrock principles of UN peacekeeping. In practice, UN mission commanders often complain that contingents have parallel lines to their home countries and get influenced accordingly.
Already widely shunned, Israel is also anxious that peacekeepers harmed by crossfire create unhelpful diplomatic vibrations. Hence, it advised Unifil to get out of the way of its determined campaign to secure southern Lebanon by clearing away Hezbollah.
That is quietly welcomed by several nations, especially the US, even as they criticise Israeli tactics and do not want Lebanon to suffer like Gaza. They perceive a greater security threat from Iran-backed Hezbollah, which has been declared a terrorist group by several states.
Such mixed political signals form the backdrop to Israel’s assertive advisory to Unifil to withdraw from frontline positions. That has evoked an unusually defiant and contentious UN response.
It is unusually defiant because UN peacekeepers are traditionally not known to stand their ground. Their notorious withdrawals from Srebrenica in 1995 and Rwanda in 1997 preceded, and some claim perhaps precipitated, genocides. In 2018, peacekeepers in the Central African Republic abandoned posts while civilians were slaughtered.
And it is contentious because the UN can do little but bluster in the face of Israel’s pugnacious attitude towards numerous rebukes in the General Assembly, Security Council, Human Rights Council and International Court of Justice. There is no love either for UN aid agencies as Israel obstructs their work and appears determined to dismantle the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Even the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, was insulted by Israel declaring him persona non grata.
A further twist comes from the Irish, whose peacekeepers have tragically suffered the most casualties over past years. They are strident because their contingent at Unifil was warned specifically by the Israeli military. But Ireland also leads a European movement to recognise Palestinian statehood, having joined the South African genocide case against Israel, too.
There is also a French angle. Lebanon was administered by France until 1944 and is now the “penholder” for Lebanese issues at the Security Council. French troops used to be a significant part of Unifil and were criticised in ways that echo more recent criticisms of “meddling” in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, all of which have expelled UN peacekeeping missions.
With diverse interests at play, keeping the tattered UN flag flying on the bunkers sheltering Unifil soldiers while Hezbollah and Israel exchange fire overhead is political gesturing rather than substantive. And it is a dangerous gesture, as 326 peacekeepers have been killed over the years. Neither adversary is deterred by Unifil, which has suffered further casualties in recent days. The UN will have decided to take a stand only after consulting troop contributors, who tend to be risk averse as soldiers returning in body bags makes for bad domestic optics. –FP
