Shortly after Hamas launched its bloody offensive against Israelthe United Nations Organization (UN) launched a double strategy. Publicly, the general secretary of the entity, Antonio Guterresand the special envoy for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, they condemned in open violence, “the kidnapping of Israeli hostages” and “the airstrikes in Gaza.” Behind the scenes, officials at the highest level of the organization opened covert communication channels with the “key actors” of “both sides”, including the groups “that de facto govern in Gaza”, to ask for a de-escalation.
But it didn’t stop there. In addition, Wennesland also came into contact with “some members” of the so-called Middle Eastern Quartetwhich includes the European Union, Russia, USA and her own UN, and was established in 2002 in an attempt to help end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Likewise, the official contacted Qatar, Lebanon and Egypt, countries that are influential figures in the contest. In parallel, the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, traveled to Egypt, and met with the country’s president, Abdel Fattá al Sisi, which also prepared the ground for Wednesday’s visit in Cairo of the top head of the UN, Guterres, to negotiate a ceasefire and the entry of food into Gaza.
Behind the scene
All this we know because, in an exercise of not so frequent communication skillthe UN itself decided this week to explain to the public, through a long article published on its news page, what the organization is doing “behind the scene“. The publication of the note, available on the organization’s website, occurred after, as usually happens systematically when a very polarizing conflict breaks out, some voices were raised (also among journalists) of contempt and ridicule of the UN for his alleged inaction. That is, that “the UN does nothing” and “the UN is of no use.”
An argument, this one, also the result of the until now poor pedagogy of the UN itself about its efforts during crises, and the lack always fluid understanding of its operation by the outside world. This was also demonstrated these days by some pieces broadcast on television and in the Spanish-language press in which the voice of non-governmental organizations was confused with that of official UN spokespersons.
Ian Phillips, the current head of the UN news division and former journalist for the AP agency (with experience, among others, in the war in Ukraine) explains that the organization is “aware that the role of the UN It is not always clear to the general public.” Even so, efforts are currently being made so that “people in the world have a better understanding of our activities”, in “a disinformation era“, according to the account, in statements given to EL PERIÓDICO.
Neutrality
A mission, this one, that has also been quite difficult in the past. Lino Bordin was on the front line of diplomacy international at the service of the UN for more than 30 years, working in scenarios as dramatic as South Africa after the end of apartheid, the Rwandan genocide, the wars in Congo and Angola, and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. “Sometimes I wonder what people think the UN is, because there is superficiality and ignorance in certain comments. It is true that the organization’s room for maneuver has limits, there is no doubt about that, but it is because the UN is the (192) nation states!”, this retired official from UNHCR, the Human Rights Agency, tells this newspaper. the Refugees of the international organization created in 1945.
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“We try everything possiblewith the resources available, which, in the case of the UN, are basically its power of persuasion in negotiations [para desescalar los conflictos] and humanitarian aid which is a palliative,” adds Bordin, who has also recently written a book about his work in Africa, Il Continente Sprecato (The Wasted Continent). Hence, for example, the UN in Gaza has workers from the Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNWRA), who are added to the staff of Unicef, the UN Population Fund and the World Food Program (WFP), among others. Some of whom have died since Israel launched its countercoup.
In truth, solving what at first glance seems to have no solution, with diplomatic engineering initiatives and slow and silent gardening, is not something unprecedented in the conflict resolution, one of the most complex matters of humanitarian action. An example in the region is the agreement peace between Israel and Egypt which was finally signed in 1979, after for more than three decades the two countries, while they fought in public, They were still negotiating behind the scenes. But this, of course, it was only known later.