On March 6, twenty-one Filipino soldiers deployed with the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) were abducted while on routine patrol in the Syrian demilitarized portion of the Golan Heights. As of this writing, they are still detained, albeit reportedly unharmed. The incident is the latest in a series of assaults on the UN peacekeepers responsible for ensuring compliance with arms limits set in the 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria. Already, the deterioration in security has prompted Japan, Canada, and Croatia to withdraw their longstanding personnel contributions from UNDOF. If the trend continues, the remaining contributors are all but certain to curtail their commitments as well, ending the only effective international monitoring mechanism along the Israel-Syria border.

BACKGROUND

UNDOF was created after the 1973 October War to supervise implementation of the Israeli-Syrian disengagement agreement in the Golan, and its 1,000-man force has been conducting bimonthly inspections within fifteen miles on either side of the border ever since. Over the past two years, however, the emergence of rebel combat formations in Quneitra province and the decline of Bashar al-Assad’s forces in the area have created an increasingly precarious security environment for UNDOF personnel operating in Syria.

In November 2012, for example, two Austrian UNDOF soldiers on a bus en route to Damascus were wounded by unknown gunmen. The incident spurred Japan to end its troop deployments in the Golan a month later. In February, a Canadian UNDOF staffer reportedly went missing in the Golan, prompting Canada to withdraw as well. And just last week, Croatia announced it was bringing home its own 100-man contingent, leaving Austria, India, and the Philippines as the sole contributors (view a PDF map of UNDOF’s deployment as of January).

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