Sri Lanka’s relations with the State of Israel resemble a typical love-hate relationship, as its continuity has been subject to many ups and downs. In the mainstream, an alliance cemented on formidable grounds between India and Israel stands as an illustration of a strategic partnership.
However, it is worthy to note that India’s tiny neighbour Sri Lanka had its strategic alliance with Israel before India developed it and it was often seen as Israeli’s success story in South Asia during the Cold War era.
Jewish relations with Sri Lanka have a long history which even dates back to the biblical epoch as Sri Lanka’s city of Galle is said to be the biblical “Tarshish” to which Biblical figure, king Solomon, sent merchant ships. Besides the unproven biblical legacy, the Jewish presence in the island saw considerable progress during British rule as many European Jews held prominent positions in the colonial administration.
In the early stage of British rule then Chief Justice of Sri Lanka, Sir Alexander Johnston proposed to establish a Jewish settlement in the island. But, this was ignored by the colonial office in London. Both Israel and Sri Lanka became independent States in 1948.
Sri Lanka had recognised Israel on March 25, 1949, though more formal diplomatic relations were to come much later, in September 1967, when the Israeli Ambassador in Rangoon was accredited to Sri Lanka concurrently and presented his credentials to the Governor General Sir Oliver Goonathilake. Sri Lanka’s envoy in Rome of Ministerial rank was accredited to Israel from Rome. And in 1959, the accreditation status was raised to that of Ambassador.
Formal ties
At the inception of the newly born nation, Israel coped with diplomatic resistance stemming from the Arab world, especially the recognition of Israel as an independent State was refused by many post-colonial countries including India. But, Sri Lanka’s first Prime Minister, D. S. Senanayake initiated the island’s cooperation with Israel, despite many Asian and African States expressed their discontent with recognising Israel due to the Palestinian issue. During D.S. Senanayake’s era, the Navy purchased its first gun ship from Israel which was named ‘Gajabahu 1’.
Apart from that, Israeli technical advisors provided technical assistance to dig tube wells in the dry zone of Northern Sri Lanka. But, these budding efforts of creating Israel-Sri Lankan comity were reversed by the nationalist rhetoric of SWRD Bandaranaike who came into power in 1956. Driven by his anti-Western sentiments, Bandaranaike upheld his position of being more supportive towards the Arab cause against the formation of Israel. Bandaranaike defended Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nassar’s decision to nationalise the Suez Canal as an inevitable move for the sovereignty of Egypt.
Israeli-Sri Lankan relations further deteriorated during the administration of Sirimavo Bandaranaike, whose foreign policy was based on the principles of non-alignment and non-aligned representatives from Arab countries expressed empathy for the Palestinian liberation cause by denouncing the State of Israel. As a stalwart of the Non-Aligned Movement, Mrs. Bandaranaike took a keen interest in forming relations with the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) regardless of PLO’s relations with Tamil separatist organisations in the early 1970’s.
In fact, several PLO representatives visited Sri Lanka to urge the Government to terminate its diplomatic ties with Israel. In the backdrop of such flourishing relations between Sri Lanka and the PLO, the Israeli Ambassador in Colombo Yitzhak Navon condemned Sri Lanka’s hobnobbing with the Arab terrorist organisation that was plotting to exterminate the State of Israel.
Within two months after Navon’s statement, Bandaranaike severed diplomatic ties with Israel arguing that Israel had violated UN Security Council resolution 242. Sirimavo’s decision was highly praised by Arab leaders as a bold act made in favour of the Palestinian’s liberation cause. This was a perfect illustration of how the PLO delegitimised Israel’s image outside the Middle East.
Closer ties between Israel and Sri Lanka were restored after 1977 under Sri Lanka’s first Executive President Junius Richard Jayewardene, when the country began to suffer from LTTE terrorism. Minister Lalith Athulathmudali who previously worked as a lecturer in law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Jayewardene’s son Ravi Jayewardene were determined that Sri Lanka should seek technical assistance from Israel to combat the LTTE.
The renewed interest of Sri Lanka to normalise relations with Israel stemmed from Sri Lanka’s desperate need to purchase arms to combat Tamil separatist militant groups. When traditional friendly States to J. R. Jayewardene, such as the USA and Britain declined the direct support, the Government in Colombo gleefully looked to the Jewish State. It is clear from the manner in which President Jayewardene described his seeking help from Israel: “We are prepared to align ourselves even with the ‘Devil’ to fight terrorism”.
On June 1, 1984, an Israeli section was opened under the auspices of the American Embassy in Colombo. It was noted that this was the first occasion where the U.S. had offered to have an “interest section” of any State under its auspices anywhere in the world. A representative of the Israeli Interest Section in Colombo was invited in 1986 to attend the Independence Day celebrations.
SWRD Bandaranaike meets the Israeli envoy to Colombo in 1957.
The Under Secretary of the Israel Foreign Ministry visited Colombo in September 1986. The Israeli Prime Minister, Shimon Peres met President Jayewardene secretly towards the end of September 1985 with, when he was returning from the Commonwealth meeting in the Bahamas and Prime Minister Peres was in Paris for a meeting with French leaders. What transpired at the discussion between the two is not reported.
The vivid account given by Victor Ostrovky and Claire Hoy in their bestselling work ‘By Way of Deception: A Devastating Insider’s Portrait of the Mossad’ indicates how the Sri Lanka Government was aided by the Mossad in the early ‘80’s. According to Ostrovsky, it was a Mossad operative (katsa) named Amy Yar who advised the Jayewardene Government to accelerate the country’s most ambitious development project – the Mahaweli project, as a quick remedy for the energy crisis and more importantly as the most suitable strategy of settling Southern farmers in the Dry Zone.
Under Mossad’s guidance, two Israeli academics provided a broad analysis on the worth of this project which crucially helped the Government to convince the World Bank for its $ 250 million investment.
Most of the contracts of the Mahaweli project were given to a major Israeli company, Solel Bonah and eminent Israeli architect Ulrik Plesner planned six new towns for the Mahaweli settlements.
New swing
The new swing of Israeli presence in Sri Lanka in the early 1980’s and the opening of the Israeli Embassy in Colombo in 1984 caused a paranoia among the Muslims in Sri Lanka on a new Jewish conspiracy theory in Sri Lanka.
In particular, the antipathy that arose from the Muslim organisations sympathising with the PLO in Sri Lanka was often filled with slogans portraying Israel as a State that ruthlessly perpetrates violence.
President Jayewardene’s successor, Ranasinghe Premadasa took a completely different approach towards Israel with his pro-Arab stance. He confounded the West by voting against the UN General Assembly Resolution 46/86 in 1991 that was adopted to revoke the determination in Resolution 3379, which had called Zionism a form of racism.
Premadasa’s decision to vote against the resolution brought no particular fame to a small island nation such as Sri Lanka, even as a traditional pro-Soviet State during the Cold War, India sided with the USA in the UN General Assembly. Premadasa made the final blow against the Israeli presence in Sri Lanka by terminating diplomatic ties in 1992.
After a long saga of hustle and bustle, relations between the two States have reached a better position now where Israel has offered an array of support to Sri Lanka. Even though Sri Lanka is directly monitored by the Israel Embassy in New Delhi, there is an Israeli cultural presence in Colombo at Chabad House which looks after the needs of Jews visiting the island.
The writer is a lecturer at the Faculty of Law, General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University and formerly affiliated to the Hebrew University Jerusalem, Israel as a visiting scholar
