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Sri Lankan Muslims Continue Protests Against Israeli Envoy
COLOMBO, July 14 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Hundreds of Muslims took to the streets Saturday in protest for the second time this week to protest the appointment of the first Israeli ambassador to Sri Lanka, David Matnai, in 30 years.
Matnai presented his credentials to President Chandrika Kumaratunga one year after Sri Lanka resumed diplomatic relations with the Israeli government in order to boost military ties between the two sides, news agencies reported.
This has angered many from Muslim provinces on the east coast of Sri Lanka who demonstrated in the streets following the Friday prayers.
This was the second incident of its kind this week. On Mondy, after Matnai presented his credentials the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, which deprived the ruling coalition of a majority in parliament last month by moving to the opposition, also protested.
Sri Lanka's diplomatic ties with Israel have come under scathing attack from Muslim leader Rauf Hakeem, whose cross-over turned the ruling coalition into a minority government.
A little over a year after Colombo and Tel Aviv announced they would establish relations, former Trade Minister Hakeem has denounced the diplomatic move.
"The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) vehemently opposes and strongly condemns the establishment of full scale diplomatic relations with Israel by the PA (People's Alliance) administration," he said in a statement.
"This act of ideological bankruptcy reveals the duplicity of the PA government in its claim of advocating peace while implementing the agenda for prolonging the civil war" Hakeem said.
Israel is one of Sri Lanka's key supplier of military hardware, including attack aircraft and gunboats, used mainly in combat with Tamil Tiger separatists in the north and east of the island.
"The Zionist regime of Israel relies on its arms industry for survival and these merchants of war will never permit the civil war in our beloved motherland to cease," added Hakim.
According to the Lanka Academic online publication, a local official called the Muslim demonstrations and protests peaceful.
Sri Lanka announced a re-establishment of ties with Israel in May last year, a day after India ruled out giving any military assistance to the island to defend against a major Tamil separatist offensive in the northern peninsula of Jaffna.
Colombo sought and received military help from Israeli occupation forces to strengthen its fleet of ground attack aircraft and gunboats to beat back Tamil separatists, while India said it would provide only "humanitarian assistance."
Sri Lanka suspended full diplomatic relations with Israel in the early 1970s over its refusal to withdraw from the Palestinian territories. Colombo has tried to re-establish ties with Israel since 1995, but was prevented by Muslim politicians.
Matnai presented his credentials more than two weeks after seven Muslim legislators walked out of Kumaratunga's shaky coalition, turning the government into a minority in parliament.
A former Sri Lankan administration ordered the dismantling of an Israeli interest section operated under the U.S. embassy in 1990. The two governments had re-established limited ties in 1985, in face of strong opposition from India.
Sri Lanka's then president Junius Jayewardene, who extended the invitation to the Israeli interest section, said at the time that he was prepared to get help from the "devil himself to fight terrorism."
Before 1990, Israel had sent military advisors to help local security forces. It had also helped set up an elite commando unit for the Sri Lankan police.
Israel and India established diplomatic relations in 1992 and have also had warming ties.
Matnai will be based in Bangkok, but Sri Lanka has an ambassador in Tel Aviv.
The Bangkok-based diplomat, who will be accredited to Colombo, also met with Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar.
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