COLOMBO: Sri Lankan activists are calling on President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to revoke the government’s decision to grant visa-free entry to Israeli nationals, a policy they say contradicts the island nation’s long-standing solidarity with Palestine.

Sri Lanka has moved to extend its visa-free entry policy to tourists from 40 countries, including Israel, to attract more tourists and speed up the country’s economic recovery, Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath announced last month. 

The decision to include Israel was swiftly opposed by members of Sri Lanka’s civil society, who demanded that Dissanayake exclude Israelis from the policy.

Sri Lankans have also taken to the streets to protest the government’s decision, including a demonstration outside the presidential secretariat in Colombo on Tuesday, and a similar rally in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs last week.

Thanzeela Ousman, who participated in Tuesday’s protest, told Arab News: “This (visa-free) policy was introduced while the world is witnessing what many, including even Israeli human rights organizations, are calling a genocide in Gaza.

“These groups are urging the international community to impose political and economic pressure on Israel to stop the violence. Instead, our government is offering free access to Israeli nationals, effectively rewarding an aggressive state.

“At the very minimum, Sri Lanka should suspend this visa-free policy and re-evaluate all ties with Israel. We should be aligning with global calls for (a) ceasefire, humanitarian access, and justice, not offering red carpets.”

Swasthika Arulingam, a Sri Lankan lawyer and human rights activist, said that since Israel has mandatory military service for citizens over 18, effectively making most of them members of the Israel Defense Forces, the visa policy was a matter of national security.

“This is a terrible policy for the country … When they are being encouraged to come to a tourist area in Sri Lanka, that itself is a national security concern because they’re fighting in a foreign army,” she told Arab News.

Arulingam also highlighted how the Sri Lankan government has recognized Palestine as a state since 1988 and voted to support numerous UN resolutions opposing Israel.

“They can’t maintain a duplicity by essentially inviting the same IDF soldiers who are committing war crimes to the Palestinian people — committing genocide — to come to Sri Lanka for recreation. When you do that, you are directly complicit in the genocide,” she said.

“During the 1940s, it would have been like inviting the Nazis to come and have a holiday camp in Sri Lanka … It’s very similar to that.”

Concerns over tourists from Israel have been growing in Sri Lanka. The government has vowed to crack down on reported illegal activities carried out by Israeli tourists in the coastal town of Arugam Bay earlier this year, following a series of complaints regarding their arrival in the country.

Civil society groups have protested and petitioned for special screenings of Israelis, after at least one Israeli tourist was identified as a soldier accused of war crimes.

Israel has killed more than 61,100 Palestinians and wounded over 151,400 since October 2023. The true death toll is feared to be much higher, with research published in The Lancet medical journal in January estimating an underreporting of deaths by 41 percent.

The study says the toll may be higher, as it does not include deaths caused by starvation, injury and lack of access to healthcare, caused by the Israeli military’s destruction of most of Gaza’s infrastructure and the blocking of medical and food aid.

In a letter to Dissanayake, lawmaker Mujeebur Rahman described the government’s decision to include Israel in the visa-free policy as a “shameful decision.”

“This allows credibly accused war criminals to enter our motherland and possibly escape justice. It is further alarming to note that Palestine is not among the nations that can enter Sri Lanka without a visa. This is not what is expected from the leadership of a country that has consistently supported a free Palestine,” he wrote.

“Your government’s decision to open the country without due diligence, scrutiny and vetting to IDF members, war criminals, criminal settlers in (the) occupied West Bank and Zionist extremists will inevitably land you and Sri Lanka among the international rejects complicit in the genocide. This will certainly outweigh the currency you expect to gain from tourism.”

Despite the protests, Sri Lankan activists say there has been no response from the government.

Shaamil Hussein, a member of the Free Palestine Movement of Sri Lanka, told Arab News: “Many Sri Lankans over here … empathize with the Palestinian struggle for justice and self-determination.

“By allowing visa-free entry for Israelis, the government may be seen as compromising its historical support for Palestine.”

“It’s vital for Sri Lanka to maintain its principal stance against injustice and oppression.”