Israelis in Sri Lanka and Advent of a ‘Neo’ Colonialism

The Island 

On 23 October 2024, the United States Embassy in Colombo issued an advisory against travel to Sri Lanka claiming it “received credible information warning of an attack targeting popular tourist locations in the Arugam Bay area.” It further noted, “due to the serious risk posed by this threat, the Embassy imposed a travel restriction on its personnel for Arugam Bay, effective immediately, and until further notice,” while strongly urging US citizens, in general, also “to avoid the Arugam Bay area until further notice.” Israel’s National Security Council followed suit, asking its citizens to “immediately leave Arugam Bay and the south and west coastal areas of Sri Lanka.”

Interestingly, Israel also raised its travel warning to Level 4, the highest in the Israeli system, and warned its citizens to leave areas such as Ahangama, Galle, Hikkaduwa and Weligama in the south, in addition to Arugam Bay in eastern Sri Lanka.  Israel also advised its citizens to leave the country itself or, at the very least, come to Colombo “where there is a heavier presence of local security forces.” Since then, Russia, the UK and other countries have also issued such warnings.

This is not good news for Sri Lanka, which has for years endured strife and other challenges: a protracted armed conflict lasting almost 30 years, the 2019 Easter Sunday bomb attacks, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the 2022 financial crisis which all but decimated the country’s economy in general and the hospitality industry in particular.  Travel advisories – specifically warnings of terrorist attacks – are bad for business anywhere. But in this case these dire advisories came as a surprise. After all, Sri Lanka had just completed the country’s most peaceful presidential election in September and is moving towards a parliamentary election in a couple of weeks, again in relative peace.  In such a context, why such undue haste and drastic warnings from some of the world’s most powerful countries on a local situation that foretold no instability?

Travel advisories are not necessarily based on technical information or clinical reports of accurate warning. They are also notoriously incomplete and often biased political documents that can be extremely counter-productive to the countries on which they are issued, which in this case is Sri Lanka. While all the warnings referred to allegedly ‘credible’ information on terrorist attacks, none gave the background for the potential attack and why at this juncture when Sri Lanka’s tourist industry has shown consistent signs of recovery?

Israeli tourists have been travelling to Sri Lanka in fairly large numbers, going up to 20,000 arrivals this year alone. Many end up in Arugam Bay, the popular local surfing destination, and in other coastal areas in the south. Local traders and restaurant owners agree that these tourists are a significant source of revenue at a time the country is trying to recover from the economic consequences of recent calamities. So why would tourists, bringing much needed revenue, face a terrorist threat, especially in a country known for its hospitality towards foreign visitors?

There are important narratives that lie beneath the incomplete texts of the travel advisories. Some Israeli tourists have been staying in Arugam Bay for a long spell of time.  Locals say many have routinely overstayed their tourist visas without any legal consequences. It is evident that these overstaying tourists have created a parallel and illegal business sector, as well as cultural and political enclaves in the local area, catering exclusively for their compatriots. The immediate consequence of this black market is the loss of revenue for local businesses, as the former is protected by the lack of foresight and engagement of the state vis-à-vis the country’s national interest.

It is in this context that we need to understand the emergence of the self-proclaimed ‘Chabad House’ in Arugam Bay. Such institutions generally are Jewish community centres that are supposed to serve educational and religious purposes. In Arugam Bay, this is mostly meant for prayer. It is this structure that has been reportedly identified as a potential target by intelligence reports. Interestingly, Chabad House has been set up in close proximity to a local mosque and Arugam Bay itself is in a Muslim majority area. The gravity of the situation lies in the fact that these local circumstances, the likelihood that they might be further aggravated by the negative popular perception of Israel globally, particularly in Muslim communities due to Israel’s violent repression of Palestinian rights, and their political and military persona in general in the Middle East are essential considerations that appear to have been disregarded by the Israelis who use Chabad House. It has also now come to light that Chabad House is not merely a venue of prayer. It functions as a centre for nefarious military-cultural propaganda in support of Israeli aggression in Palestine, as evidenced by the Hebrew language posters put up by them in memory of soldiers who had died in the violence in Gaza.  The above situation is further placed in context by the following observation by ‘Jimmyyoung’ posted on X on 20th October 2024: “Just returned from Aragum Bay. Is that a Colony of Israel now? The Israelis treat the locals like shit. It’s almost like they think they’re better than brown people. I won’t return after having to deal with their arrogance and disrespect on the land and in the surf.”

It is very unlikely that such activities – including setting up businesses, religious infrastructure and Israeli militarist propaganda – are carried out with official Sri Lankan government sanction. Commonsense would dictate that these are illegal under Sri Lankan law.  To take as a comparative example, if one were to pose the following questions: Can Sri Lankan workers who go to work in the Israeli care-giver industry, construction and agricultural sectors do so on a tourist visa?

Can they so casually open their own businesses while on a tourist visa, or overstaying a work visa?  Can they set up Buddhist, Hindu or Muslim religious places in Israel and promote sectarian Sri Lankan political agendas? The answers without exception would be a resounding ‘no’.  And rightly so.  This is not allowed in any country that has any degree of self-respect. Such practices usually end up making a group needlessly and negatively visible and this is particularly the case with foreigners, as the repercussions are usually felt adversely by the local communities.  While all this is going on locally, it is regrettable that our people are forced to and even encouraged by the Sri Lankan government to travel to Israel to work under dangerous conditions with a full-blown war raging in the region.

It is against this background that the emergence of Chabad House and its politics should be assessed.  The need for the travel advisory has been created by these unthinking and unintelligent tourists themselves who have openly violated Sri Lankan laws under the very eyes of the Sri Lankan state.  Ironically, due to its pervasive shortsightedness, the state now has to provide security to Chabad House at the cost to Sri Lankan tax payers at a time the country can hardly afford such needless expenditure. But the current travel advisories issued among others by the US, the UK, Israel, Australia, as fundamentally biased political documents have chosen not to take into account the prevalent ground realities. These advisories should have been issued to Israeli citizens and others advising them to respect the law of the land and the sensitivities of local communities when travelling in a foreign country.

The situation today is eerily and farcically akin to successive former Sri Lankan governments turning a blind eye to Russian and Ukrainian-run illegal tourism-related businesses in the south of the country a few years ago during the Ukrainian war. The money that was generated through such businesses never came into the country as the transactions were done online.

These tourists from the Caucuses not only ran their own ‘hotels’ but also their own transport services ensuring that very little money actually percolated to the local communities.  Again, as with the present Israeli case – given their unmitigated success and protection in the local areas – the Russians and Ukrainians became so arrogant and obnoxious, to the extent of organizing a ‘White Only’ party in Unawatuna, to cite just one example. Is it not simply shameful that these foreign visitors were racially profiling the locals in their own country, while enjoying the best of what Sri Lanka has to offer, and at the same time being protected from legal consequences.

But make no mistake, all these transgressions are possible because the government and local authorities pay scant regard to these illegalities for the misplaced interest in making a fast buck. However, much of the hard currency earned in these informal foreigner-run operations does not even come into the country.

The latest incident involving Israelis is merely one more example of an emerging neo-colonial trend in Sri Lanka making locals second-class citizens in their own country, and the laws irrelevant. However, ultimately the problem is not with the Israelis, Ukrainians, Russians or others like them.  It is with Sri Lankans.  There are crooks everywhere.  But the point is this: do we as a nation allow these crooks to set up their nefarious and illegal operations in our land and let them steal our revenue, tax income, pride and self-worth as our own people go hungry and remain unprotected, locally and abroad?