Israel is sending 14 police officers to Haiti to assist in United Nations efforts to bring law and order to the Caribbean nation that suffered a catastrophic earthquake that left more than 200,000 dead and some one million homeless.
While it may be a small contingent, it represents a major step in Israeli participation in UN roles and a stepping-stone to expanded Israeli contribution to the organization.
The police officers will be joining a multinational UN policing force with contingents from Italy and Jordan.
On their uniforms will be their national flags together with the flag of the United Nations.
“We saw the flags of Israel and the flags of the UN together on the table and it had a very positive meaning, as it should,” said Richard Miron, spokesman for UNSCO (United Nations Special Coordinator Office for the Middle East Peace Process).
“It is very important to us at the UN to see Israel participating alongside every other nation of the UN with its contribution. It needs to be stressed, even though it shouldn’t, that Israel has the same rights and obligations as every other nation who sits inside the United Nations.”
For decades, Israel has been on the receiving end of the UN security forces. There are currently three UN forces (UNIFIL, UNDOF and UNTSO) stationed along Israel’s borders with Lebanon and Syria, plus a multi-national force (MFO) as a buffer along the Egyptian frontier. The Israeli police force in Haiti will mark the first time that Israel is participating in a significant way to a UN security force outside the country.
Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told The Media Line this could be the start of a changing relationship between Israel and the United Nations.
“We are trying to grow the relationship beyond the conflict and the principles are participation, cooperation and normalization of relations with the UN. Israel is a state like any other state, especially with all the capabilities that we have,” Ayalon said.
Police said the mission grew out of a request from UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon to Israel’s Public Security Ministry. The officers will assist in quelling public disturbances and maintaining public order, as well as securing the personal safety of Haitian residents attempting to recuperate from the disaster.
“Every mission is a challenge,” said Police Superintendent Ron Krig. “Our value is to help people. We are raised for this. It is the ethical code of the police. It’s helping people no matter where they are. We are police officers like police officers all over the world. Like the American police, the Israeli police are the same. We are born to help people and we are proud to do it.”
The officers will live in field conditions, spend the nights in sleeping bags and tents, and will be equipped with army rations, special uniforms and wide-ranging personal equipment that will allow them to remain there for an extended period. They will be deployed for at least three months.
Two of the 14 police officers have delayed their marriages and one is leaving behind his wife who is seven months pregnant with their first child. Only a few in the contingent speak French and none speak Creole, the language spoken in Haiti.
“We are not afraid of difficult. Difficult is our life, in missions everywhere as every police in the world. We will do it with a lot of love and a lot of experience we have here with the Israeli Police,” said Krig, who commands an elite anti-crime unit.
While stressing that Israel was not building itself on the disasters of others, Deputy Foreign Minister Ayalon said Israel’s participation was a boost for Israeli diplomacy.
“It is a significant event because it shows the nature, the true nature, of the State of Israel and the Jewish people. Our detractors and enemies try to depict us as a pariah state and this is the true answer to all those who try to really give us a bad name,” Ayalon said.
As far as the United Nations is concerned, this event should become routine.
“It is very important that we don’t see this as an exceptional event, but we see this as something hopefully which is fairly ordinary, that Israelis, that the State of Israel contribute to the state of the work of the UN around the world,” Miron told The Media Line.