United Nations Emergency Force#UNEF II

File:PDN Levels RGB Input230 25 Output255 0.75 0, H-S 0 50 0 1.25 x3, Auto-level(In180 70 Out255 1.28 0), AKVIS HC-N - Lynn Garrison crew with UNEF Otter, Sinai(.png).jpg crew with UNEF DHC-3 Otter, Sinai, 1962]]

File:UNEF Caribou El Arish 1962.png at El Arish, 1962]]

File:Swedish peacekeepers evacuating their position during the Six Day War.jpg]]

The first UN military force of its kind, UNEF's mission was to:

:... enter Egyptian territory with the consent of the Egyptian Government, in order to help maintain quiet during and after the withdrawal of non-Egyptian forces and to secure compliance with the other terms established in the resolution ... to cover an area extending roughly from the Suez Canal to the Armistice Demarcation Lines established in the Armistice Agreement between Egypt and Israel.

UNEF was formed under the authority of the General Assembly and was subject to the national sovereignty clause, Article 2, Paragraph 7, of the U.N. Charter. An agreement between the Egyptian government and the Secretary-General, The Good Faith Accords, or Good Faith Aide-Memoire,Good Faith Aide-Memoire, 11 UN GAOR Annexes, Supp. 16 U.N. Doc. A/3375 (1956) placed the UNEF force in Egypt with the consent of the Egyptian government.[http://www.internationaltraderelations.com/The%20Withdrawal%20Of%20UNEF.pdf The Withdrawal of UNEF and a New Notion of Consent, page 5] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120731125417/http://www.internationaltraderelations.com/The%20Withdrawal%20Of%20UNEF.pdf |date=31 July 2012}}

Since the operative UN resolutions were not passed under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, the planned deployment of a military forces had to be approved by Egypt and Israel. After multilateral negotiations with Egypt, eleven countries offered to contribute to a force on the Egyptian side of the armistice line: Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, India, Indonesia, Norway, Sweden, and Yugoslavia. Support was also provided by United States, Italy, and Switzerland. The first forces arrived in Cairo on 15 November, and UNEF was at its full force of 6,000 by February 1957. The force was fully deployed in designated areas around the canal, in the Sinai and Gaza when Israel withdrew its last forces from Rafah on 8 March 1957. The UN Secretary-General sought to station UNEF forces on the Israeli side of the 1949 armistice lines, but this was rejected by Israel.Norman G. Finkelstein alludes to Brian Urquhart's memoir, A Life in Peace and War ({{ISBN|0060158409}}), where Urquhart, describing the aftermath of the 1956 Suez Crisis, recalls how Israel refused to allow the UNEF to be stationed on the Israeli side of the line, and labels the Israeli rejection as a "grave weakness for a peacekeeping force." (Finkelstein 2003:277)

The mission was directed to be accomplished in four phases:

1. In November and December 1956, the force facilitated the orderly transition in the Suez Canal area when British and French forces left.
2. From December 1956 to March 1957, the force facilitated the separation of Israeli and Egyptian forces and the Israeli evacuation from all areas captured during the war, except Gaza and Sharm-el-Sheik.
3. In March 1957, the force facilitated the departure of Israeli forces from Gaza and Sharm-el-Sheik.
4. Deployment along the borders for purposes of observation. This phase ended in May 1967.

Due to financial constraints and changing needs, the force shrank through the years to 3,378 by May 1967.

On 16 May 1967, the Egyptian government ordered all United Nations forces – at the time, composed mostly of military contingents from Brazil, Canada, and India, with a smaller Swedish contingent – out of Sinai.canada.ca: [https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/services/military-history/history-heritage/past-operations/middle-east/unef-i-evacuation-air.html on 16 May 1967, as was his right, the Egyptian President ordered UNEF to leave his country] Secretary-General U Thant tried to redeploy UNEF to areas on the Israeli side of the border, in order to maintain a buffer, but this was rejected by Israel.U Thant in his memoir describes how he met Ambassador Gideon Rafael, permanent representative of Israel to the UN, on 18 May 1967 and asked him, "in the event of the United Arab Republic's official request for a UNEF withdrawal, if the government of Israel would be agreeable to permit the stationing of UNEF on the Israeli side of the line..." The ambassador refused, declaring such a proposal was "entirely unacceptable" to his government. Thant later stated that if only Israel had agreed to permit UNEF to be stationed on its side of the border, "even for a short duration, the course of history could have been different. Diplomatic efforts to avert the pending catastrophe might have prevailed; war might have been averted." (Thant 1978:223)

By 31 May, the Canadian contingent had already been completely evacuated by air, with the Brazilian, Indian and Swedish contingents still preparing for evacuation, when Israel invaded Egypt on 5 June 1967, starting the Six-Day War. In different episodes, Israeli forces attacked a UNEF convoy, camps in which UNEF personnel were concentrated and the UNEF headquarters in Gaza. In these episodes, one Brazilian peacekeeper and 14 Indian officials were killed by Israeli forces, with an additional seventeen wounded in both contingents.

The last United Nations peacekeeper left the region on 17 June.

File:Sílvio Caldas em Suez (1957).tiff UNEF Soldiers in Sinai]]The Brazilian peacekeeper killed by Israeli forces was Sergeant Adalberto Ilha de Macedo. The Indian members of UNEF killed in the Israeli attacks were: Captain Vijay Sachar, Subahdar Ajit Singh, Sepoy Sohan Singh, Sepoy Joginder Singh, Sepoy Pritam Singh, Sepoy Sadhu Singh, Sepoy Mohinder Singh, Bandsman Gopal Singh, Sepoy Mukhtiar Singh, L/Naik Sulakhan Singh, Sepoy Jit Singh, Sepoy G. K. Kutty, Nce Sona Baitha, and Sepoy Zora Singh.

File:Unstamp emergency force 3.jpg

Stationed in Gaza City.

• Nov. 1956 – Dec. 1959 Lieutenant-General E. L. M. Burns (Canada)
• Dec. 1959 – Jan. 1964 Lieutenant-General P. S. Gyani (India)
• Jan. 1964 – Aug. 1964 Major-General Carlos F. Paiva Chaves (Brazil)
• Aug. 1964 – Jan. 1965 Colonel Lazar Mušicki (Yugoslavia) (Acting)
• Jan. 1965 – Jan. 1966 Major-General Syseno Sarmento (Brazil)
• Jan. 1966 – June 1967 Major-General Indar Jit Rikhye (India)

Contributors of military personnel were: Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, India, Indonesia, Norway, Sweden, and Yugoslavia.

File:UNEF Soldiers in Sinai Resting (1).tif|UNEF soldiers resting

File:UNEF in Sinai (7).tif|UNEF soldiers in Sinai

File:UNEF Soldiers Reading Newspapers in Sinai.tif|UNEF soldiers reading newspapers

File:UNEF in Sinai (5).tif|UNEF soldiers in Sinai

File:UNEF in Sinai (3).tif|UNEF soldiers in Sinai

UNEF Soldier with a Landmine in Sinai.tif|UNEF soldier with a land mine

• Multinational Force and Observers, a somewhat similar, but smaller force instituted to ensure enforcement of the Egyptian–Israeli Peace Treaty
• Second United Nations Emergency Force
• United Nations Security Council Resolution 340
• United Nations Truce Supervision Organization
• Yom Kippur War

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{wikicite | id=Finkelstein-2003 | reference= Finkelstein, Norman G. (2003). Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict, 2nd ed., New York: Verso. {{ISBN|1-85984-442-1}}.}}
• {{wikicite | id=Oren-2002 | reference= Oren, Michael B. (2002). Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East, New York: Ballantine Books. {{ISBN|0-345-46192-4}}.}}
• {{wikicite | id=Rikhye-1980 | reference= Rikhye, Indar Jit (1980). The Sinai Blunder, London: Frank Cass. {{ISBN|0-7146-3136-1}}.}}
• {{wikicite | id=Thant-1978 | reference= Thant, U (1978). View from the UN, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc. {{ISBN|0-385-11541-5}}.}}

• {{cite book |last=Kochavi |first=Doran |title=The United Nations' peacekeeping operations in the Arab-Israeli conflict : 1973–1979 |year=1984 |publisher=University Microfilms |location=Ann Arbor, Mich. |oclc=229042686}}
• {{cite book |last=Stjernfelt |first=Bertil |author-link=Bertil Stjernfelt |title=The Sinai peace front: UN peacekeeping operations in the Middle East, 1973-1980 |year=1992 |translator-last1=Nihlén |translator-first1=Stig |publisher=Hurst |location=London |isbn=185065090X |id={{SELIBR|6427285}}}}

• Records of [https://search.archives.un.org/united-nations-emergency-force-i-unef-i-1956-1967 the United Nations Emergency Force I (UNEF I) (1956-1967)] at the United Nations Archives
• [https://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/dpko/co_mission/unef2facts.html UN DPKO]
• [https://www.un.org/en/documents/index.shtml UN document centre]
• [https://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/dpko/co_mission/unef2res.html UN SC Resolutions]

{{UN Peacekeeping Operations}}

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Category:Military units and formations established in 1956

Category:Arab–Israeli conflict

Category:20th century in Egypt

Category:Suez Crisis

Egypt

Egypt

Category:Sinai Peninsula

Category:Egypt and the United Nations