Israelis recruited Irish speakers to monitor peacekeepers in Lebanon

Israeli military intelligence officers recruited the services of Irish speakers so they could translate sensitive information transmitted between Irish soldiers working for the UN in Lebanon.

The claims were made by a number of former Irish army officers and soldiers who told the Irish Examiner it became apparent in the early 1980s that the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) and the South Lebanon Army (SLA), an Israeli proxy operating inside Lebanon, were able to react “too quickly” to communications as Gaeilge.

As many Israelis and the opposing Hezbollah could speak English, the Irish troops used Irish to pass sensitive information between their peacekeeping units.