Kidnapped Israelis’ Kin Sue Hezbollah
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

UNITED NATIONS -The families of three Israeli soldiers who were kidnapped in Lebanon in 2001 and later put to death plan to press a lawsuit demanding reparations from Hezbollah and its sponsoring states – Iran, Syria, and Lebanon – as well as against the U.N.
The families intend to release the legal details of their action in a press conference in Tel Aviv on Sunday, but according to Israeli newspapers’ Web sites, the suit – involving “huge sums”- will be presented at an American court and the U.N. is going to be one of the targets. No such legal action against the U.N. has ever been successful.
When informed of the intention by The New York Sun, Undersecretary-General Jean Marie Guehenno called the idea “strange.” Mr. Guehenno, who heads the peacekeeping department, which is responsible for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or Unifil, and has been the target of angry relatives of the kidnapped soldiers in the past, was sympathetic to their pain.
“I see the tragedy, I see the horror for the families,” he told the Sun, adding, however, “I don’t see where the U.N. would have any responsibility.”
The three soldiers, who were on guard duty at a controversial border post known in Arabic as Shaba Farms and in Hebrew as Har Dov, were kidnapped in October of 2000 by Hezbollah operatives near an observation post of the Unifil. They were classified as missing in action for three years, after which their bodies were returned to Israel as part of a swap last February.
A report prepared by the U.N. in August of 2001 admonished U.N. personnel for their failure to send to their New York superiors several videotaped cassettes shot by peacekeepers, which carried critical information related to the actual kidnapping. The tapes also revealed that armed Unifil troops failed to confront Hezbollah terrorists who used vehicles with fake U.N. insignia for the kidnapping.
Even if the families were able to prove U.N. culpability, however, it would be hard for them to mount a successful case against the world body, several legal experts said yesterday. They cited the 1946 Convention on Privileges and Immunity of the U.N., joined by America in 1970, which allows U.N. workers almost blanket immunity against lawsuits for any activities related to their work.
The families stressed yesterday that their main target is Hezbollah, which is recognized in America as a terrorist organization. They demanded compensation for the anguish caused to relatives of the three soldiers, Binyamin Avraham, Omar Suwayed, and Adi Avitan.
“Our most important task is to get justice regarding the terrorist organizations,” Haim Avraham, a father of one soldier, told the Web site of the newspaper Ma’ariv. “These are organizations backed by Syria and Iran, and it is high time to act against them for justice. Our lawyers will handle the legal details.”