UN Salutes Fallen Hezbollah Terrorists
July 20, 2008 
Print This Post
Two United Nations peacekeepers were photographed saluting the flag-draped coffins of two Hezbollah terrorists during an exchange of enemy corpses between Israel and Hezbollah. 
The media has erroneously and continuously called the deal a ‘prisoner exchange’ but Israel didn’t receive any prisoners, just the remains of two dead Israelis - who were most probably murdered while in Hezbollah ‘custody.’
But to get them back, Israel was forced to surrender Samir Kuntar, perpetrator of one of the most grisly terrorist murders in Israel’s long history of grisly terrorist murders.
Associated Press photographer Mohammed Zaatari captured an image of the troops paying homage to fallen Hezbollah fighters as trucks bearing their coffins drove through the city of Tyre in southern Lebanon.
The blue-helmet U.N. troops, who operate under the auspices of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), are meant disarm Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and be an impartial buffer along the country’s border with Israel.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, said he was “shocked and horrified” by the photograph and that it was time for the saluting soldiers to go.
“I think they should be recalled and be sent back to whichever country they came from,” said Gillerman. “I think they’ve definitely compromised their impartiality and have in a very big way, in a very serious way, compromised the integrity of the United Nations.”
But a UNIFIL spokeswoman said the salute was nothing out of the ordinary.
“It is customary in most armies for military personnel in uniform to salute whenever a coffin passes in a procession,” UNIFIL spokeswoman Yasmina Bouziane said. “They were merely following this customary military tradition and saluted coffins draped in Lebanese national flags at their own initiative.”
The identity of the troops wasn’t certain, but Getty Images reports they were from Italy.
Comments
Got something to say?
You must be logged in to post a comment.
