The UN Challenged, 1967-89 » The UN and Lebanon, 1975-85

A country torn apart

Lebanon is a small country on the eastern Mediterranean, between Israel and Syria. Its people were divided by religion, mainly into Christians and Muslims, and each group had its own leaders and armed groups. After 1970 the problem grew worse. Thousands of Palestinian refugees lived in Lebanon, and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) moved its bases there after it was driven out of Jordan. The PLO used southern Lebanon to attack Israel, and Israel hit back.

In April 1975 fighting broke out between Christian militias and Muslim and Palestinian groups. It became a civil war that lasted until 1990. Different groups fought each other and changed sides. In 1976 Syria sent troops into Lebanon, and Lebanon's government lost control of much of the country.

Key terms:

• Civil war: a war between groups inside one country.
• Militia: an armed group that is not part of the official army.
• PLO: the Palestine Liberation Organisation, which fought for the Palestinian cause and was based in Lebanon in the 1970s.
• UNIFIL: the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, set up in 1978.

The Israeli invasion of 1978 and UNIFIL

In March 1978 Palestinian fighters landed on the Israeli coast and an attack killed dozens of Israelis. Days later, on 14 March, Israel invaded southern Lebanon to destroy PLO bases. Israeli forces took most of the land south of the Litani river.

The Lebanese government appealed to the UN. On 19 March 1978 the Security Council passed Resolutions 425 and 426. They called on Israel to withdraw, and they created UNIFIL. Its job was to:

• confirm that Israeli forces had left;
• help restore peace and security;
• help the Lebanese government take back control of the area.

UNIFIL began with several thousand soldiers from countries such as Fiji, Ireland and Nepal. Remember that UN peacekeepers could only use force in self-defence. They were there to keep peace that the sides had agreed to, not to defeat an army.

Israel withdrew by June 1978, but it did not hand the border area to UNIFIL. Instead it passed positions to a Lebanese Christian militia led by Major Saad Haddad, which Israel supported. UNIFIL could not reach the whole area it was told to control. Peacekeepers were also shot at, and fighting across the border carried on. Resolution 425 was only partly carried out.

The Israeli invasion of 1982

In June 1982 Israel invaded again, this time on a much bigger scale. The immediate trigger was the shooting of Israel's ambassador in London on 3 June. Israel blamed Palestinian groups, and on 6 June its army went into Lebanon. Israel said it wanted to push the PLO away from its northern border. Its forces advanced far past the UNIFIL area, and within days they were close to Beirut, the capital.

The Security Council demanded that Israel stop and withdraw (Resolution 509). Israel did not obey. UNIFIL's soldiers stayed at their posts while tanks drove past them, because they had no orders, numbers or weapons to block an army. Israeli forces then surrounded the Muslim western half of Beirut, where PLO fighters were based.

The UN did not solve the crisis. In August 1982 a separate multinational force of American, French and Italian troops, not a UN force, helped the PLO fighters leave Beirut by sea. In September 1982 Christian militia fighters killed hundreds of Palestinian civilians in the camps at Sabra and Shatila, in an area Israeli forces had surrounded. The UN General Assembly condemned the killings. The multinational force came back, but after bombings in October 1983 killed many American and French soldiers, it left in early 1984.

By June 1985 Israel had pulled back from most of Lebanon, but it kept a "security zone" in the south, held with its Lebanese militia allies. UNIFIL stayed. The civil war went on.

Why was the UN so limited here?

• No power to enforce. UNIFIL was lightly armed and limited to self-defence, so it could not push a stronger army back.
• Sides who would not co-operate. Peacekeeping depends on agreement. Israel, the PLO and the militias each ignored UNIFIL when it suited them.
• A war with many sides. In a civil war with many armed groups, there was no single government or ceasefire for the UN to support.
• Great Power politics. The USA supported Israel, and Syria had the backing of the USSR. This made it hard for the Security Council to agree on strong action.

So the UN did something, but not enough. It made its views clear and kept a force in the area, yet it could not end the occupation or stop the war. That is why Lebanon is a case study in limited success.

Exam-style question

Explain TWO ways in which the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL, 1978) was different from the UN force in the Congo (1960-64). [6 marks]

Remember: in the Congo the UN sent about 20,000 troops, and from February 1961 they could use arms as a last resort. By January 1963 they had ended Katanga's breakaway. Each way must say something about BOTH sides of the comparison.