Craig Murray
Consortium News / February 13, 2025
What went wrong? Is this Srebrenica syndrome? The author probes UNIFIL Spokesman Andrea Tenenti about what happened in southern Lebanon on January 26.
On January 26, at least 22 unarmed civilians in southern Lebanon were shot dead by Israel and 147 wounded in a massacre observed by heavily armed UN Peacekeepers who did not intervene. I asked the UN the very hard questions which nobody else is asking them.
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The civilians were simply attempting to return to their homes in accordance with both UN Security Resolution 1701 and the current ceasefire agreement, and indeed UNIFIL, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, has a specific mandate under 1701 to assist displaced people to return.
So what has gone wrong with UNIFIL? Is this Srebrenica syndrome? What is the purpose of the heavy weaponry deployed by the UN’s best equipped peacekeeping force, if it can never be fired? Why is the UN failing to monitor the hundreds of Israeli breaches of the ceasefire agreement? Why is the UN serving on a committee under a US general?
These and other questions I put to UNIFIL Spokesman Andrea Tenenti. I did so in my usual, I hope courteous, manner. The result is a fascinating conversation which I believe is an extremely important piece of documentation of institutional failure to confront Israeli and U.S. aggression at a critical time for the entire world.
Craig Murray is an author, broadcaster and human rights activist; he was British ambassador to Uzbekistan from August 2002 to October 2004 and rector of the University of Dundee from 2007 to 2010
