UNIFIL to build fence on Blue Line to guard against Zionist cows
BEIRUT: United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is in the process of erecting a fence in the southern Kfar Shuba area with the aim of preventing cows from Israeli flocks crossing the Blue Line and using Lebanese water supplies, a spokesperson confirmed on Monday.
The fence, which will be erected by the Spanish contingent of the UN peacekeeping force, will be two meters high and surround the Baathaiil Lake once finished in the next ten days.
A UNIFIL spokesperson told The Daily Star that they are assisting the Lebanese authorities by creating the fence “in order to prevent cattle crossing around the Kfar Shuba region.”
Media reports on Monday suggested that the fence, once erected, will allow Lebanese shepherds to pass over to the opposite side of the lake.
The spokesperson could not confirm these reports but said that “[UNIFIL] has been requested by the LAF [Lebanese Armed Forces]” to implement the fence’s construction. There are currently no plans to build additional Blue Line fences in the region.
Recent reports of incursions by Israeli livestock have been condemned by Kfar Shuba municipality officials as violations of Lebanese sovereignty and, by extension, Israeli transgression of UN Security Council resolution 1701 – which stipulates that both countries must acknowledge the UNIFIL-administered Blue Line, demarcated after Israeli military withdrew from South Lebanon.
This comes a month after a UNIFIL meeting, in which municipality members urged peacekeepers to keep Israeli cows out of Lebanon by any means necessary.
