Ali Mahmoud/AP Photo
In the summer of 2015, the UN Department of Safety and Security reassigned me from “Mogadiscio” to the “Palestinian Territories, Occupied.” Back then, United Nations reassignment letters adhered to the International Civil Service Commission’s Editorial Manual, hence the outdated spelling and reference to long-ignored resolutions of international law.
I’d done well in Mogadishu, Somalia, and this was an intimidatingly bigger job that included security oversight for East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza, as well as the organization’s oldest peacekeeping mission—the UN Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO).
Mogadishu had been my second non-family posting—UN parlance for an assignment where spouse and dependents cannot join you at the duty station—and both were great for my career, but not so much for my marriage. After three years of ferrying between Somalia and Kenya (four weeks in, one week out), my wife Iryna and I looked forward to a more stable family situation in Jerusalem.