Israel and Sri Lanka – From DS to Ranil

Israel is making headlines with its attacks within West Asian countries not limited to Palestine, and it will be interesting to see how the present government manages it and how Sri Lankan leaders in the past from Prime Minister D.S Senanayake to President Ranil Wickremasinghe handled the issue during their tenure.

- BY HASALA PERERA

D.S Senanayake - first South Asian leader to recognise Israel

Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) and Israel both gained independence from the British in the same year in 1948 and we became the first South Asian country to recognise the state of Israel on September 16, 1950 [Jewish Virtual Library, AICE Project], just a day before India recognised it. This was when D S Senanayake was the prime minister.

Before becoming the prime minister, DS Senanayake was the minister of agriculture in the first state council of Ceylon and had been very keen in developing agriculture in the country with the vision of making the country self-sufficient in food. One day he was approached by Sir Arthur Ranasinghe, who was the Secretary to the Committee on Agriculture and Land who suggested that DS writes about his visionary ideas on agriculture to the press. This was an idea born after Sir Arthur read about the Zionist Movement and its contribution to agriculture by cultivating arid lands in Palestine.

DS’s biographer H.A.J Hulugalla visited Palestine and its Jewish settlements, brought back an English book titled ‘Fellah’s Farm’ written by a Jewish agricultural expert, which he handed over to Senanayake. This inspired DS to write a series of articles about his policy on agriculture, which was later collected and published in a book titled ‘Agriculture and Patriotism’ [pg.122, D. S. Senanayake, H A J Hulugalle].

SWRD Bandaranaike - torn between the two

Sri Lanka decided to formally initiate diplomatic relations with Israel on June 1, 1956, when power shifted from the United National Party to the newly formed Sri Lanka Freedom Party led by S.W.R.D Bandaranaike.

Bandaranaike seemed to sympathise with the Palestinian cause, but he didn’t want to sever ties with Israel while Israel was keen in maintaining diplomatic relations with Sri Lanka during this period.