Arugam Bay, Sri Lanka – The solar hung low over the Indian Ocean, casting an amber glow on the waves as a heated argument erupted in Arugam Bay, a well-liked seashore in jap Sri Lanka.
Within the water, a gaggle of native surfers had been engaged in a dispute with Israeli vacationers that kicked off over surf etiquette – or fairly, from the attitude of the Sri Lankans, a scarcity of it.
Jeevan Corridor, an internationally acclaimed Sri Lankan surfer, was within the lineup of the surf when he encountered an Israeli vacationer repeatedly taking waves with out leaving any for others. Annoyed, Corridor approached the vacationer – an off-duty soldier of the Israeli military – and requested him to respect the browsing code of conduct and share the waves.
What began as an innocuous request shortly escalated right into a tiff. Two of the soldier’s buddies, additionally Israeli troopers on a break, joined in. The three began paddling round him within the water, hurling insults in Hebrew.
Different surfers rushed to help Corridor, solely to be met with accusations from the Israelis: “You solely have points with us due to the battle.”
Corridor knew the troopers had been referring to Israel’s battle on Gaza. He shortly clarified that his frustration had nothing to do with politics however with the soldier’s blatant disregard for surf manners.
“It is a quite common factor that occurs in Arugam Bay,” Corridor later advised Al Jazeera.
However there’s a motive why the Israeli troopers referred to the battle that’s on a tenuous pause for the second due to a ceasefire. In Sri Lanka, as in lots of different elements of the world, they’re not as welcome as earlier than.
Hassle in paradise
For many years, Sri Lanka has been a haven for worldwide vacationers in search of its pristine seashores, world-class surf, and a slice of tropical paradise – all at a comparatively lesser value than related websites in different elements of the world.
Among the many guests, younger Israeli vacationers have carved out a notable presence, significantly the reservists – Israelis who’ve come in a foreign country’s obligatory army service.
In 2022, 9,000 Israeli nationals entered Sri Lanka, with the determine rising by 1,000 the following yr, in line with native authorities.
In 2024, nevertheless, as Israel’s army marketing campaign in Gaza changed into a genocide, the variety of Israeli guests to Sri Lanka doubled with an estimated 20,000 getting into the South Asian island.
Shiro Jeyawadne, a Sri Lankan who strikes between the east and south surf season every year, working in eating places and bars alongside the coast, mentioned she believes Israelis are vacationing in higher numbers in Sri Lanka as a technique to “recover from” the battle they participated in.
“They don’t appear to care that there’s stress between the broader group with them being right here, their minds are elsewhere,” she advised Al Jazeera.
Within the island’s vacationer cities resembling Arugam Bay, the sight of enterprise indicators in Hebrew is regular, highlighting the enclaves of Israeli reservists who typically keep for months on finish. At the least 100 Israelis have settled within the city, which has a complete inhabitants of fewer than 4,000.
“I by no means have to know if my buddies will probably be there. After I come to Sri Lanka, I do know there will probably be different Israelis I can spend my journey with,” Tel Aviv-based T Oko advised Al Jazeera.
For years, the relations between the native residents and Israeli guests had been cordial because the inflow contributed to a tourism-dependent Sri Lankan financial system.
However cracks on this dynamic are actually seen.
A number of coastal vacationer locations – together with Indonesia in 2018 and the Maldives in 2024 – banned Israeli passport holders from getting into their nations. In December, Australia denied the entry of two Israeli troopers who had served in Gaza.
In Sri Lanka, some consider that following go well with would result in an inflow of “extra ethically-minded” vacationers who’re in any other case hesitant to go to because of the dominance of Israeli reservists on the island’s seashores.
“The vibe could be completely different, the shoreline tradition could be extra linked,” Jack Campbell, a long-term resident initially from Australia, advised Al Jazeera.
“It’s a snowball impact as a result of they exist with a gaggle mentality. I don’t really feel secure for my household right here,” he mentioned, referring particularly to Israeli troopers who’ve been flagged as suspected battle criminals.
‘Struggle criminals’ on vacation
Gaza battle crimes allegations and unlawful companies run by Israelis have prompted widespread anger and resentment amongst native communities in Sri Lanka. Whereas a fragile ceasefire has been in place in Gaza since January, fears that the battle is way from over are pervasive, worsened by provocative statements from leaders in Israel and its major international supporter, the USA.
It’s unlawful to work on a vacationer visa in Sri Lanka. But, from hospitality and resorts to nightlife and wellness studios, unlicensed Israeli companies have mushroomed throughout the island. Presently, there are greater than 50 Israeli vacationer ventures on the island – lots of them owned by earlier or present reservists with the assistance of corrupt officers, and sometimes sidelining native companies.
“We’re cognisant that Sri Lankan staff in vacationer hotspots want the earnings and understand they’re gaining earnings from Israeli companies and vacationers,” Serena Burgess, a Colombo-based activist concerned within the island’s pro-Palestine actions, advised Al Jazeera.
“From what we are able to collect, various these companies are sending income to Israel by means of bank card transactions,” she mentioned.
Sri Lankan activists organise campaigns to tell folks of the Israel-Palestine battle, and the extent of Israeli atrocities in Gaza and the remainder of the Palestinian territory.
Activists additionally work in direction of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) motion in Sri Lanka, distributing lists of Israel-linked firms and organisations to folks. Most of those activists requested anonymity as a result of safety issues.
Over the previous six months, a minimum of three incidents of bodily violence by Israeli nationals have been reported by the locals, with police investigating them. In every incident, Israeli vacationers bodily attacked locals on the south coast who had been recognized to be vocally pro-Palestinian. Final December in Ahangama, a well-liked vacation spot for younger travellers, Israeli vacationers approached an area household recognized for his or her work in Sri Lanka’s anti-Zionist motion, bodily attacking and vandalising their property.
In December, the Hind Rajab Basis (HRF), a Palestinian advocacy group, discovered that Israeli soldier Gal Ferenbook was holidaying in Colombo. The Belgium-based basis is called after the six-year-old Palestinian lady killed by Israeli troopers alongside along with her household inside a automobile in Gaza. Since its formation final summer season, HRF has pulled collectively legal professionals and activists from around the globe to arrange instances towards Israeli troopers based mostly on social media posts by the troopers themselves, boasting of what they did within the battle.
The HRF issued a press release, urging the Sri Lankan authorities to arrest Ferenbook, who had posted a video on social media during which he was seen holding the physique of a Palestinian over his tank, like a trophy. As quickly because the request was raised, the Israeli soldier fled Sri Lanka in December 2024, reportedly with the assistance of native Israeli officers.
“It’s completely not regular for these guys who simply shot a child within the head, who raped and murdered, to get on a aircraft and are available right here to relax on the seashore,” Egyptian activist Zein Rahma advised Al Jazeera final month whereas holidaying in southern Sri Lanka, the place she realised she was sharing the seashore with Israeli troopers who had returned from Gaza.
Rahma mentioned she made it her mission to report the presence of Israeli troopers in Sri Lanka’s vacationer cities. “That is not an area problem, it’s a world one,” she mentioned.
Sri Lanka just isn’t a signatory to the Worldwide Felony Court docket’s (ICC) 2002 Rome Statute which prosecutes people for battle crimes. Nevertheless, the island nation signed the Geneva Conference in 1949, which states that battle crimes are a violation of humanitarian legislation.
“The worldwide legislation and human rights requirements are very clear. If there’s proof of worldwide crimes, that must be investigated and people held accountable,” Sri Lankan human rights lawyer Bhavani Fonseka advised Al Jazeera.
“It’s a query to pose to the brand new NPP authorities,” she mentioned, referring to the governing Nationwide Individuals’s Energy alliance, headed by Marxist-leaning President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, which stormed to energy in September final yr.
Sri Lankan authorities have confronted the query of whose facet they’re on a number of instances for the reason that battle on Gaza started in 2023. Whereas Sri Lanka, very like the worldwide group, has voted towards the battle on the United Nations, the island can also be struggling to return out of a historic financial disaster that noticed the toppling of a authorities in 2021 and a subsequent financial bailout from lenders just like the Worldwide Financial Fund (IMF).
The report monetary meltdown additionally brought on an unemployment disaster in Sri Lanka. In the present day, 4.7 % of Sri Lankans are unemployed. In response to the island’s labour power statistics, in September 2024, the speed was 4.1 %, prompting the federal government to ship almost 20,000 residents to work in Israel’s farming and building sectors to make up for the scarcity of Palestinian staff because of the battle in Gaza. Many of those Sri Lankan staff stay in Israel immediately.
In the meantime, activists like Burgess are attempting to coach the locals on why in search of employment in Israel is “significantly unethical”. However with very restricted financial assets domestically, it’s unclear whether or not these calls will really stem the stream of Sri Lankan staff headed to Israel.
Safety for whom?
In October final yr, the US, the UK, Australian and Russian embassies in Sri Lanka issued now withdrawn advisories, asking their residents to keep away from travelling to Arugam Bay, a Muslim-majority city, over threats to Israeli troopers dwelling or holidaying there.
The alleged menace led to the deployment of Sri Lankan troopers, helicopters and tanks on the seashore, ending the east coast’s surf season abruptly and leaving the locals confounded. Jeyawadane, an area, claims there have been fewer than 10 Israelis in Arugam Bay when the advisory by the Western nations was issued and there was no apparent bodily menace to anybody. Because the season had begun on the southern coast, many Israeli vacationers had as an alternative made their manner down there.
However the Sri Lankan authorities escalated its response to the perceived menace, dispersing safety personnel all through the nation’s vacationer cities and arresting three folks, together with a Sri Lankan nationwide dwelling and dealing in Iraq. Vijitha Herath, minister of public safety and overseas affairs, mentioned the suspects had been taken into custody.
“The bay virtually emptied in a single day,” Corridor advised Al Jazeera. His household has run an iconic resort in Arugam Bay for over a decade.
Together with virtually the entire different resorts in Arugam Bay, the resort acquired cancellations for weeks from vacationers visiting from around the globe, even after the advisory was withdrawn. The place as soon as Arugam Bay was a hotspot for Israeli vacationers, a synagogue and Shabbat centre working in its again streets 5 years in the past, now the streets had been empty.
A month later, in November, Sri Lankan forces secured Chabad Home, a Jewish centre constructed by Israeli nationals in Colombo, whereas orders got to reinforce safety at resorts frequented by Israeli nationals.
The deployment of troopers for the safety of Chabad Home angered many Sri Lankans, who claimed it was illegally constructed, with no obligatory authorities allow.
When Member of Parliament Mujibur Rahman questioned Prime Minister Harani Amarasuriya on it in parliament in December 2024, Amarasuriya acknowledged that the Chabad Home and different such centres, together with in Arugam Bay, had been working with out permission. In response to Rahman, the development started with the permission of the earlier, now-ousted authorities.
Now, even with a brand new authorities in place, these admittedly unlawful buildings are being protected by Sri Lankan defence forces, complained Rahman. As of February 2025, police had been nonetheless seen guarding the Colombo Chabad Home’s entrance. “We’re struggling to grasp who’s behind this,” he advised Al Jazeera.
He additionally alleged that the federal government was conscious of the presence of potential Israeli battle criminals in Sri Lanka. “The issue is, there aren’t any methods for prior screening [of soldiers],” he mentioned.
Many Sri Lankans, together with Jeyawadane, say the nation’s decades-old strategic ties with Israel might have prompted the safety of the Jewish centres. “It is sensible that our defence power remains to be in cahoots with theirs – Israel did promote us weapons throughout our battle,” Jeyawadane defined to Al Jazeera.
Throughout Sri Lanka’s 30-year-long civil battle with Tamil rebels combating for a separate homeland for the ethnic minority group, Israel supplied weapons and coaching to the Sri Lankan army. The civil battle led to 2009. However that relationship, critics say, was additional nurtured by the highly effective Rajapaksa household that dominated the island’s politics between 2005 and 2021, after which they had been overthrown following a well-liked motion. Satirically, the Rajapaksa brothers, particularly former presidents – Mahinda Rajapaksa and Gotabaya Rajapaksa, have themselves confronted accusations of committing and overseeing battle crimes in the course of the civil battle.
The NPP was voted to energy final yr by Sri Lankans fed up with years of corruption and so they demanded accountability and punishment for these they believed had been responsible. Lots of these folks are actually enraged by suspected Israeli battle criminals holidaying of their nation.
“No extra excuses. No extra silence. It’s time we began to take again management,” mentioned Burgess.