About VVL

Why Veterans for Lebanon was founded...

Background

When the civil war in Lebanon broke out in 1975 and Israeli troops in southern Lebanon occupied the area up to the Litani River in 1978, the Lebanese government protested to the UN Security Council. The UN Security Council adopted Resolution 425 on 19 March 1978, which heralded the establishment of the UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL in southern Lebanon. 
UNIFIL's mission was to control the retreat of Israeli troops, restore peace and security in the area, and help the Lebanese government regain its authority.

From 1979 to 1985, have a total of more than 9,000 Dutch people, mostly conscripts, contributed to the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in southern Lebanon.
On February 25, 1979, 74 quartermasters left for Lebanon, the main force of almost 800 soldiers left on March 10, 1979.
The soldiers were deployed in South Lebanon under the name Dutchbatt (Dutch Infantry Battalion).
On 30 September 1983 the Dutch contribution was reduced to the size of a company (about 150 soldiers) named Dutchcoy (Dutch Infantry Company).
On 23 Oktober 1985, the last Dutch UNIFIL soldiers left Lebanon.
Now, 46 years later, this peacekeeping force is still present on the border of Lebanon and Israel.  

The UN Security Council unanimously decided on August 28, 2025, after pressure from the US, that the multinational peacekeeping mission will be terminated on December 31, 2026.
After almost fifty years, the UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL in Lebanon is coming to an end.
The 10,800 UNIFIL employees who will still be there will be gradually withdrawn in 2027.
Israel must therefore have removed its troops from Lebanon.

It is in 2018 when Bert Kleine Schaars organizes a first trip with former Dutch Unifil soldiers. This is possible with the cooperation of, among others, Minister Bijleveld and airline Transavia , which has just started with direct flights from Amsterdam to Beirut.

The second trip with multiple veterans and their wives or children is in March 2020.
It is another great trip through a country that has great poverty and unfortunately has few options of its own. Only recently have gas and oil fields been found off the coast. In fact, the country is completely dependent on food imports.Due to the global crises, the country is in bad shape if the Corona also strikes there in March. Medical facilities will come under even more pressure.

From this group, the thought quickly arises how help can still be provided and what would be the best way to organize. If the group in the Netherlands is still thinking about that in the Lock down, something will happen that will change everything in that country and in Beirut.

Prior to the explosion

A late November day in 2013. A cargo ship, presumably chartered by Russia, docks in the port of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. Nobody knows exactly what the ship is doing, because it was actually on its way to Mozambique in Africa.
About 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate will be transferred from the ship to Hangar 12, a storage facility right next to the port's grain silos. The industrial bags with the highly explosive substance remained there untouched for years. A ticking time bomb, which would eventually lead to the largest non-nuclear explosion since the end of World War II.
On August 4, 2020, a fire breaks out near Hangar 12 in the port of Beirut. There is still about 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in Hangar 12, an extremely explosive substance.
Result: a gigantic explosion reduces part of the city to rubble.