Why would anyone attack Irish peacekeepers?

Private Sean Rooney was the 47th soldier to die in south Lebanon, the first in 23 years, since 1978 when the Irish army was first deployed to the region on UN peacekeeping missions. Rooney, 24, was driving an armoured service vehicle with three passengers when it came under fire near al-Aqbiya village north of the UN area of operations. UN vehicles are not allowed to leave the main coastal highway above the Litani river which defines the upper limit of the peacekeepers area of operations. Rooney’s vehicle began its journey in convoy with a second, also carrying Irish soldiers.

The destination was Beirut where two troopers were set to fly home for funerals of relatives.  The vehicles became separated when Rooney, inexplicably, turned off the highway onto a secondary coastal road leading to al-Aqbiya and the fatal incident.  The time was 11.15 last Wednesday night. Village men had gathered in the street to discuss Morocco’s defeat by France in the World Cup semi-final match.  According to Gulf Today’s local source, there may have been tension, disputes. The men surrounded the white vehicle bearing the UN identification and prevented it from progressing.

Rooney attempted to turn the vehicle around to flee, striking at least one pedestrian. Seven shots rang out. Rooney was hit in the head and crashed the vehicle into a shop’s metal shutter and, reportedly, into a telephone pole, causing the vehicle to topple over. The other three soldiers were wounded in the crash, one critically. The Lebanese authorities are seeking two suspects. While some in Ireland argue the attack was “premeditated,” no one could have predicted that Rooney would leave the highway and get lost.  The shooting with a semiautomatic was clearly opportunistic.  

Why would anyone mount such an attack on UN peacekeepers? The UN installation of infra-red  cameras to monitor villages and towns where UN troop patrol has caused rifts with local people who  believe individual peacekeepers could be collaborating with Israel as some in the 46 contingents in the 10,000-strong force might very well be sympathetic with Israel. Consequently, villagers display hostility when UN personnel attempt to take photos.

No one could have known that the occupants of the vehicle were Irish.  They are, by far, the most popular of all the UN contingents. During their 44-year deployment, Irish soldiers have served the communities where they have been based, particularly in the town of Tibnine. There they raised money to build extensions to an orphanage. In the words of former peacekeeper Declan Power, writing in The Irish Times, an “Irish soldier acted like an adoptive parent to those young victims of conflict.”  Tibnine villagers proudly point out that they speak English with an Irish accent and claim that a number of their girls have married Irish soldiers.

Power blames a recent campaign of vilifying UN troops for the shooting and points out that Hizbollah is influential in the area. The movement has established clinics and provided other welfare services in Shia areas traditionally neglected by the government.  Al-Aqbiya, however, is said to be a stronghold of Amal.  This movement, headed by Lebanon’s parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri, partners Hizbollah which has denied involvement in the shooting.

The Lebanese army and caretaker government have vowed to track down the perpetrators. The army, the authorities, and the UN are conducting separate investigations and Irish policemen have been dispatched to Lebanon to monitor these probes.  Dublin has little confidence that the outcome of any of these

investigations will be any more successful than the aborted probe into the massive explosion at Beirut port in 2020 that killed 219, wounded thousands, and destroyed entire neighbourhoods in the country’s capital. Ireland could review its deployment in south Lebanon even though its peacekeepers have served  in far more dangerous places at far more threatening times — the Balkans, Afghanistan, and Rwanda. At present Lebanon suffers political deadlock and economic collapse not warfare. Irish withdrawal would be a tragedy. The Gulf Today’s southern source remarked, “People feel very bad about the Irish soldier who died. The Irish are very popular here. They help the people. Make games for the children. They have been coming here for a long time.”  

 Ireland is one of the main contributors to the present force. But Ireland is not a former colonial power like the home countries of other key contributors, France and Italy, which have negative histories with the countries of the Arab world. While the Irish army is primarily a domestic defence force, it is highly active as a global peacekeeping force. It is one of the few military forces working for peace in this world. So far, 324 Irish peacekeepers have been killed fighting for peace since Ireland first shouldered the job.

Ireland’s first involvement was in a UN observer force in Lebanon in 1958, two decades before joining peacekeeping. Since then Ireland has become one of the largest contributors to UN peacekeeping.  Irish troops and police have served in Cyprus, Sudan, and Syria as well as Lebanon in this region; in Haiti in the Americas; in more than half a dozen Sub-Saharan African countries; Kosovo in Europe; and Afghanistan, India and Pakistan in Asia.  

Ireland is in an ideal position to carry out peacekeeping duties. Although a Western country, Ireland has maintained political “neutrality” and not joined NATO. Ireland has also emerged from 800 years of British colonialism, making its citizens sensitive and responsive to the physical and psychological traumas experienced by citizens of former colonies.  

Although Ireland has adopted neutrality, this does not mean it does not take principled stands on key international issues. The Irish public took up the Palestinian cause after the 1967 war when a quarter of a million Palestinians were expelled from Israeli occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

In 1980 — eight years before the Palestinian declaration of independence — Ireland became the first European Union member to endorse the establishment of a Palestinian state. Although the 1993-1994 Oslo accords failed to bring forth this long-promised state, in 2000 Ireland opened a representative office in Ramallah and in 2011, Ireland accorded the Palestinian delegation in Dublin diplomatic status. During 2014, Ireland’s upper and lower houses of parliament passed motions calling for recognition of Palestine, making Ireland first in the European Union to take this stand, despite pressure from the bloc’s pro-Israel countries which hold sway on this issue.