U.N.-MIDEAST: Arab Nations Refuse to Pay for “Israeli Aggression”

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, May 15 1997 (IPS) - The United Nations is caught in the middle of a dispute between Israel and Arab countries over the reconstruction of a U.N. military compound in Lebanon that was destroyed by an Israeli air strike last year.

The 22 Arab countries at the United Nations have collectively told Israel: “If you destroyed it, you pay for it.”

The damages have been estimated at more than 1.9 million dollars, including costs covering repairs to roads and infrastructure, medical care, and disposal of explosives.

Under normal circumstances, the costs would have come out of the U.N. peacekeeping budget shared by all 185 member states. But the Arab countries have told the U.N. Secretariat they will not pay a penny out of their pockets.

Speaking on behalf of the Arab States, Hassan Najem of Lebanon said this week his Group could not accept any of the costs of the “Israeli aggression” against the military compound belonging to the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

The Israeli attack, which killed more than 100 Lebanese civilians who had been taking shelter at the UNIFIL headquarters in Qana, southern Lebanon, took place in April 1996. It has provoked angry outbursts from the Arab world.

“U.N. member states should not be made to bear the costs arising from acts of aggression of an individual country,” Najem says.

The Israelis have expressed their apologies for the shelling and the civilian deaths. But they have contended they were returning fire after they were attacked by rockets from Hezbollah guerrillas who were firing from the vicinity of the U.N. compound.

Brigadier General Dan Harel, Chief of Artillery of the Israel Defence Force (IDF), said last year that Israeli forces were under strict instructions not to target the United Nations. “Therefore, the shelling of the Qana compound could only be the result of a combination of technical and procedural errors and chance,” he added.

But a U.N. investigating team led by Maj. Gen. Franklin van Kappen of the Netherlands last year said that “while the possibility cannot be ruled out completely, it is unlikely that the shelling of the U.N. compound was the result of gross technical and/or procedural errors.”

Anwer Barout Saleem of the United Arab Emirates said it was inconceivable that Israel would commit aggression against the headquarters of UNIFIL and then to ask member states to pay for the action.

Tammam Sulaiman of Syria this week called the shelling of the Qana camp an example of “state terrorism”, and said “Israel could no longer hide behind arguments that Lebanese civilians defending their territory were terrorists.”

Mohamed Fattah of Egypt argued that Israel had, in fact, paid for some of the costs — about 200,000 dollars — for medical care, following the attack on Qana. That action implied that Israel had accepted responsibility for the attack on civilians, he noted.

But “those costs did not include responsibility for the deaths of more than 100 civilians and the damage to UNIFIL headquarters,” he said. “Therefore, the Israelis should assume responsibility for the aggression. If other member states were asked to assume the costs of the incident, it would set a dangerous precedent and encourage others to commit similar acts of agwression.”

The Arab request is unusual. Linda Shenwick of the U.S. delegation wants the U.N. Secretariat to provide pertinent instances when one U.N. member state had been asked to cover components of a peacekeeping operation.

Zvi Cohen of Israel says that U.N. reports and statements had held Israel responsible for events in Lebanon over the years “while not holding the government of Lebanon responsible for terrorist activities launched from its territory.”

“The tragedy of Qana was brought about by the violent attacks on northern Israel by Hezbollah,” he said, adding that any damage that resulted from self-defence “were the fault of terrorist actions that had provoked the response.”

“Since terrorist activities close to the U.N. site in Qana had elicited artillery responses, the terrorists and their patrons should be held responsible for the resulting damage. Israel should not be held responsible,” he noted.