Trending Now
We have updated our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use for Eurasia Group and its affiliates, including GZERO Media, to clarify the types of data we collect, how we collect it, how we use data and with whom we share data. By using our website you consent to our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy, including the transfer of your personal data to the United States from your country of residence, and our use of cookies described in our Cookie Policy.
{{ subpage.title }}
UN Italian peacekeeping soldiers secure an area outside their base in the southern Lebanese border village of Alma al-Shaab.
Israel’s attacks on UN peacekeepers draw international condemnation
Israel and the UN’s historically thorny relationship has become even more contentious amid the escalating fight between the Israeli military and Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed militant and political group in Lebanon.
The UN says that Israeli forces have fired on their peacekeepers in southern Lebanon several times in recent days and that at least five peacekeepers have been injured in the process.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged UNIFIL, the UN’s peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, to leave the area and get out of “harm’s way.” Netanyahu denies that Israel has deliberately targeted peacekeepers. UNIFIL, which is mandated to be in southern Lebanon by the UN Security Council, refuses to leave. Meanwhile, the UN on Sunday said that the Israeli military forcibly entered one of its positions in southern Lebanon, which Israel denies.
Tough gig. UNIFIL — the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon — was first established in 1978 to oversee Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon following an invasion that same year. It’s made up of 10,000 personnel from 50 countries and patrols an area known as the Blue Line — a UN-designated line separating Lebanon from Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
UNIFIL is charged with maintaining peace and security along the border between Israel and Lebanon, which is no easy task given the volatile history of the region. A 2006 UN resolution, tied to an Israel-Hezbollah war that year, expanded UNIFIL’s mission and called on it to “ensure that its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind.”
The Israeli government and other critics of UNIFIL say it’s ineffective and hasn’t done a good enough job reporting on Hezbollah’s activities and build-up in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah has repeatedly fired on Israel from the area since last October amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, in a tit-for-tat that ultimately spiraled into the recent Israeli invasion of Lebanon atop escalating airstrikes across the country.
Israel’s criticism of UNIFIL does not appear to be landing with much of the international community, which is condemning the Jewish state for firing on peacekeepers.
UN chief António Guterres — who Israel recently declared persona non grata — has warned that attacks on peacekeepers could constitute war crimes, and President Joe Biden has called on Israel to stop firing on peacekeepers.
The UK, France, Germany, and Italy on Monday condemned “all threats to UNIFIL’s security,” and called for IDF attacks on peacekeepers to stop “immediately.” Similarly, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday said attacking UN troops is “completely unacceptable.”
We’ll be watching to see if Israel listens and adjusts course in Lebanon.
Graphic Truth: Biggest contributors to UN peacekeeping
UN Peacekeeping is all about helping countries navigate the often rocky transition out of violent conflict, with the hope of laying the groundwork for a lasting peace. For over 70 years, peacekeepers have been deployed around the world to help maintain security, protect civilians and human rights, and oversee peace processes. There are currently 11 active peacekeeping missions around the world.
Canada played a central role in the early development of UN Peacekeeping. In 1957, Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs Lester B. Pearson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his vital role in establishing a UN Emergency Force that helped resolve the Suez Crisis of 1956 in Egypt.
UN Peacekeeping is financed by UN member states — and has a budget of roughly $6.4 billion — with countries like the US, China, and Japan among the top financial contributors. Meanwhile, the biggest contributors of personnel to UN Peacekeeping are Bangladesh, Nepal, and India. Do you think UN Peacekeeping is worth all that goes into it? We’d love to hear from you!Police try to protect residents fleeing the neighbourhood after gangs took over Carrefour Feuilles, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti August 15, 2023.
UN approves Kenyan mission to Haiti
The UN Security Council on Monday authorized a Kenyan-led mission to Haiti that aims to help the nation’s beleaguered police forces re-establish control of the Caribbean country.
Ever since President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in 2021, Haiti has been plunged into anarchy, with gangs controlling the vast majority of Port-au-Prince, the capital. More than 150,000 people have been displaced by gang violence, and thousands have been killed. The police, serving a caretaker government that lacks popular legitimacy, are underfunded and overwhelmed.
Earlier this year, the Haitian government and the UN called for international help. The US has supported the idea, but a checkered history of American interventions in Haiti has made the White House reluctant to get involved directly.
That’s where Kenya comes in. The resolution – which the US supported, and Russia and China abstained from – empowers Nairobi to dispatch 1,000 police officers to Haiti, alongside about a dozen other countries that have pledged to join the mission. It also offers training and logistical support to the countries that pledge to intervene. For more on why Kenya is stepping up to the plate, check out this explainer.
But taming Haiti’s gangs is a tall order, and not everyone is thrilled about an international mission like this. Recent UN interventions in Haiti have resulted in a deadly cholera outbreak and allegations that peacekeepers sexually exploited Haitian women and then abandoned hundreds of children who were born as a result.
Two Haitian-American groups are already lobbying against the Kenyan plan, telling the Biden administration that the intervention will only “exacerbate [Haiti’s] current political crisis to a catastrophic one.”