Features

Discussing Palestine in Sri Lanka

Published

3 years ago

2024/02/4

By Uditha Devapriya

“She vigorously defended apartheid as a necessary bulwark against black domination and the communism that engulfed her native Yugoslavia. [She]… thought Africans inferior to other human beings and not entitled to be treated as equals. I asked if Hitler hadn’t said the same thing about her as a Jew. She called a halt to the conversation.”
Chris McGreal, The Guardian, February 7, 2006

Last Wednesday, January 31, the Centre for Progressive Politics & Policy held its inaugural webinar on Sri Lanka’s response to South Africa’s case against Israel. Moderated by Saroj Pathirana, it featured two women’s rights activists, Shreen Saroor and Piyumi Wattuhewa, alongside Kalana Senaratne, Hejaaz Hizbullah, and Dayan Jayatilleka. The latter’s inclusion was particularly refreshing; he should be one of the main voices in discussions like this, even if for some reason he never seems to get featured in them.

The participants brought out some interesting perspectives on the ruling situation. While Senaratne reflected on how the Global South has taken over the moral high ground on human rights issues, Hizbullah, a victim of anti-terror legislation in Sri Lanka, dwelt on how the war in Gaza sheds light on the West’s racist attitudes against Muslims and the Israeli model’s acceptance by Sinhala nationalists in Sri Lanka and abroad. Saroor dwelt on the parallels between the Gaza conflict and the separatist conflict in Sri Lanka, while Wattuhewa brought out a feminist youth angle, emphasising the need for broad solidarity on Gaza.

Jayatilleka began his intervention by recalling Palestine’s bid for membership at UNESCO, where he served as Sri Lanka’s Permanent Delegate, in Paris, from 2011 to 2013. The vote came up for discussion at the 193rd UN General Conference. As expected, Western countries led by the US tried to stall it.

Hillary Clinton – who recently took to Twitter to lament Margot Robbie’s exclusion from the Oscars, but has yet to tweet about or share images of what Palestinian women are going through in Gaza – asked UNESCO to rethink its decision, while a Republican Senator threatened to cut US funding to that agency.

In hindsight, the latter threat seems to have been prescient, with a Democratic government now cutting funding to the UN agency for refugees, on largely unsubstantiated allegations of UN staff collaborating with Hamas. Back then, however, sanity prevailed, and in a broad show of Global Southern unity, Palestine’s bid succeeded, with a majority (107-14) which surprised if not shocked the West. Coming 12 years before the current war, it was an early example of the possibilities of Global Southernism, of the sort that, as Senaratne implied in his presentation, appears to be emanating from Africa.

Africa’s recent interventions on these fronts have not been examined properly, especially by Western analysts who dismiss it as a passive participant in global politics. South Africa’s case and Gambia’s interventions in the conflict are, in that sense, not just commendable; they are also indicative of a broader shift in the Global South. In Asia, countries like India have been ambivalent, at best, with their stance on Israel, and the Sri Lankan government seems to be of two minds when it comes to Gaza. Africa, by contrast, has been much more steadfast and consistent in their support of the Palestinians.

When considering Sri Lanka’s response to the South Africa ruling, a distinction must be drawn between the people and the government. The latter, for all intents and purposes, is trying an intriguing balancing act, supporting the Global South’s push for a humanitarian ceasefire while sending our youth to work in Israel. While it remains to be seen how the regime will achieve this balance, Sri Lankans, particularly the youth, are calling for a more ethical stance. Moreover, as one participant noted, the Palestinian Ambassador called on and commended the likes of Mahinda Rajapaksa, but had nothing to say to, or about, the President, even though the latter is amplifying calls for a ceasefire abroad.

Sri Lankan youth are overwhelmingly siding with Palestine because they identify Palestine, and the African countries that have called for an end to Israeli atrocities in Gaza, as the marginalised. Yet much of the Global North has framed Israel as the smaller, defenceless power that is being encircled by stronger states and needs protection by the West. Though Joe Biden has imposed sanctions on Israeli settlers, and David Cameron speaks about a Palestinian State, risking backlash from their party colleagues, the US and UK have done very little to prevent the bloodbath unfolding in the region.

In that context, Hizbullah’s point about Islamophobia and its bearing on Israel and Sri Lanka is very pertinent. He noted, correctly, that many Sinhala nationalists have sided with Israel, seeing Hamas as an extension of the kind of Islamic fundamentalism they associate with almost all Muslims in Sri Lanka. In other words, they have accepted Israel’s response. The parallels Saroor brought up between the conflict there and the conflict shed light on this further, though, as Hizbullah acknowledged, the figurehead of Sinhala nationalist politics in Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa, is seen as a hero by Palestine.

Both Saroor and Hizbullah are brave, courageous critics of all forms of chauvinism; Saroor in particular noted her defiance of the LTTE. In that sense, and adding to what they said, I think we need to note that, inasmuch as Sinhala nationalists sought common ground with Israel’s “response” to Muslim “terrorists”, Tamil nationalists once identified with the Israeli model as well. Though Tamil nationalist outfits set up links with Palestinian resistance leaders like George Habash, the rise of the LTTE put an end to hopes of a rapprochement between these groups. In Sri Lanka, hence, Palestine became a lost cause.

This dovetails with another issue. Historically, Sinhala and Tamil nationalist groups in Sri Lanka both identified themselves as victims: of British colonialism in the case of Sinhala nationalists, of Sinhala chauvinism in the case of Tamil nationalists. Yet they adopted the viewpoint of the groups that brutalised them when they rose to power. Seeing themselves as the oppressed, they turned oppressor the minute they got the chance.

In a way, that parallels the tragedy of the Jewish people as well. Following the Second World War, the Jewish diaspora had the unprecedented chance of turning into a voice for the voiceless, of championing causes like decolonisation and anti-racism. Yet its leaders ended up hobnobbing with pariah, authoritarian, and racist regimes: the Israeli government, for instance, supported apartheid South Africa, while Jewish migrants and Holocaust survivors who settled there – with the exception of progressive liberals like Helen Suzman, a secular Jew who associated with Nelson Mandela – sided with the White regime.

For a while, marginalised communities in the West, like African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement in the US, expressed some sympathy for Zionism and identified the Jewish people as kindred spirits. But that was another world. Following the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and its support for the West’s forever wars, including in Vietnam, began draining the country of whatever support it had got from these groups. This dovetailed with its fading support within the Global South: while S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike could champion the Palestinian cause and defend Israel’s right to exist in the 1950s, by the 1970s and 1980s such attitudes had faded away.

The Israeli government has only itself to blame for this, and that applies to all parties and politicians there. Those who argue that it became racist and genocidal after the rise of Likud, the right-wing party that nurtured Benjamin Netanyahu, forget that the Labour Party was in power in the 1950s. However more progressive the Party may have been on domestic and economic issues, it was hardly less complicit in the marginalisation and brutalisation of the Palestinians. Though promoting democracy at home, it stifled dissent abroad, turning any criticism of the country into a cover for anti-Semitism. In the end it lost credibility in the very regions which would have been in its interest to have been allied with.

It is in light of these historical developments that Sri Lanka’s response to the ICJ ruling must be viewed, considered, and debated. For some the ruling does not go far enough – it does not, for instance, call for an immediate ceasefire – while for others it remains a landmark. However one may view the ruling, in Sri Lanka there is a clear and broad show of support for Palestine and the people of Gaza. The vast majority of Sri Lankans, particularly its youth, do not consider Palestine negotiable. In Sri Lanka, simply put, it is not up for debate, but for discussion. And as the CPPP webinar made it clear, there are many perspectives that must be factored in, and incorporated, when discussing it.

Note: The Centre for Progressive Politics & Policy is a research collective that focuses on Governance, Political Institutions, Freedom of Expression, Youth and Gender, Reconciliation, and Poverty. It can be accessed at . www.muragala.lk.

Uditha Devapriya is a writer, researcher, and analyst based in Sri Lanka who contributes to a number of publications on topics such as history, art and culture, politics, and foreign policy. He can be reached at .udakdev1@gmail.com.

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Features

New US sanctions on ICC, a fillip to worldwide political repression

Published

11 hours ago

2026/10/15

Thilina Walpola

The International Criminal Court in session. UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s warning to the International Criminal Court (ICC) was stark: ‘Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC.’ It followed US central administration accusations that the court was unfairly targeting Americans on the basis of trumped-up war crimes charges.

However, a new plethora of sanctions has been clamped on the ICC by the US, which in turn has spurred accusations by sections of the world that the latter has unleashed an ‘assault’ on the international legal order.

What some of the sanctions would mean for the ICC was outlined by Rubio: ‘We will ban transactions with this rogue court, cutting off their resources and crippling their ability to operate against us.’

The ICC has shown consistency of purpose over the years. Despite some operational constraints it has indicted a large number of political strongmen from around the world, accused of war crimes and other governance excesses that come under its purview. Two such recent figures are: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Rather than enjoy a mere nominal presence in the world community, the ICC has proved its effectiveness by detaining and bringing to justice scores of VIP politicians and others of their ilk who have been found guilty of human rights abuses and kindred excesses that come within the terms of reference of the ICC.

Accordingly, the international justice system would be stymied considerably as a result of the ICC being dis-empowered, particularly financially. Needless to say, potential and real perpetrators of the species of crime coming under the jurisdiction of the ICC would stand to gain most from such anarchic tendencies. That is, political repression globally would be enabled to enjoy a new lease of life.

A detailing of the types of crime coming under the purview of the ICC provides an idea of what it would cost the international community if the ICC’s operations are gravely hampered. They are mainly: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression.

That is, the part of the world to be worst affected would be the global South, since the latter is awash with the mentioned crimes. Needless to say, a chronically-disaffected South will sooner rather than later undermine the well being of the world dangerously. The world is already being put through these paces.

At the time of writing, ‘illegal migrants’ from the South, for example, are aggravating many a Western economy’s woes, besides creating for them acute law and order issues. The fact that these migrants’ presence goes on to become a virtual test of the migrant receiving states’ ability to forge domestic social inclusion in the face of jingoistic protests by mainly white supremacist groups is evidence of the latter. As is known, the US, to take just one example, has been up against this crisis for quite a while.

Accordingly, it will be in the best interests of the West if ‘illegal’ migrant arrivals on their shores are stemmed. If the socio-political and economic problems assailing the South are effectively managed through North-South collaborative, ‘trouble-shooting’ efforts the causes leading to ‘illegal’ migration and connected issues could be resolved at source as it were. For, it is the aggravation of the South’s material questions that lays the basis for the emergence of repressive and anti-democratic regimes in the hemisphere.

Until such time that the aforementioned issues in North-South relations are visited afresh and addressed urgently, a vibrantly functioning ICC would be needed. For, the latter would prove a deterrent to Southern political and military strongmen, highly prone to power abuse and like excesses, from coming into being in the wake of the South’s chronic material woes and the wars and conflicts that result from them.

It stands to reason then that the US would be acting in its own interests by enabling the ICC to perpetuate its mandate without hindrance. For a crop of issues that impinges negatively on internal law and order would be defused.

Meanwhile, there needs to be a meeting of minds among the rest of the West to put back in place a North-South dialogue process aimed at reducing some of the economic pressures that are weighing on the South.

Since economics usually drives politics it will be in the interests of the world community to scrutinizingly re-visit North-South issues of the past and put in place economic relief packages for Southern publics that would enable them to tide over their material hardships rather than permit the latter to aggravate into social disaffection and eventually armed militancy. It is the latter juncture that paves the way for the emergence of authoritarian rulers in the South who then go on to be a blight on their publics.

Accordingly, the Southern-based global development thinking of the past that envisaged a more equitable world economic order needs to be seen as an urgent need. That is, NAM’s international development paradigms need to be resuscitated to the extent possible.

It is unlikely that rightist governments of the West, such as the current Republican administration in the US, would find these projects feasible, but democratic states of Europe, led by perhaps the UK, are likely to think otherwise. For it would not be beneficial for the democratic world to be having on their hands repressive governments in the South who would be gravitating towards the major military and economic actors of the South, such as Iran and North Korea, who tend to be in constant power struggles with the West.

However, until such time that the mentioned, pro-people initiatives are given serious thought the ICC would need to be enabled by the international community to be in place comfortably and carry on with its mandate of bringing repressive rulers to book. Besides the ICC should pave the way for the peoples of the developing world to enjoy some substantial respite from the political repression and even terror which tend to be their lot.

Meanwhile, the wars of West Asia are relentlessly aggravating the economic hardships of people everywhere, driving the point home to enlightened sections that there is no alternative to peacemaking. A challenge is to convert the US under President Trump to this line of thinking.

Features

Clear, soft and shine-free skin

Published

11 hours ago

2026/10/15

Thilina Walpola

This week, I give you five simple, time-tested homemade remedies that help reduce the appearance of blemishes, control excess shine and leave your skin feeling softer and smoother.

The Honey and Lemon Brightening Dab:

For stubborn blemish marks, this is a classic. Mix one teaspoon of pure bee honey with three to four drops of fresh lemon juice. Apply gently, only on the affected spots, and leave for 10 minutes before rinsing with lukewarm water. While honey soothes and softens, lemon helps to brighten naturally. Use twice a week in the evening.

Besan and Rose Water Oil-Control Pack:

An ideal remedy to combat shine, especially on the T-zone. Take two teaspoons of besan (gram flour) and mix with sufficient rose water to form a smooth paste. Add a pinch of turmeric for its antiseptic goodness. Apply evenly, keep for 15 minutes and wash off. It absorbs excess oil without over-drying, leaving a beautiful matte finish.

Aloe Vera and Cucumber Ice Soother:

Blend fresh aloe vera gel with the juice of a grated cucumber and freeze the mixture in an ice tray. Each morning, wrap one cube in a soft muslin cloth and gently rub over a cleansed face for 30 seconds. It calms, tightens pores and imparts a baby-soft smoothness.

Oatmeal and Curd Gentle Polish:

Roughness and old blemish marks need gentle exfoliation. Combine one tablespoon of finely powdered oatmeal with one tablespoon of fresh curd (yoghurt). Massage very gently, in circular motions, for one minute, leave for five minutes and rinse. It removes dead cells and unveils softer, clearer skin.

Multani Mitti and Green Tea Magic Mask:

Brew some green tea and allow it to cool completely. Mix one and a half teaspoons of Multani Mitti (Fuller’s Earth) with the tea water to make a fine paste. Apply for 10 to 12 minutes – do not let it dry and crack completely – and wash off. It draws out impurities, fades blemishes and bestows a fresh, shine-free glow.

A Gentle Reminder:

As with any natural remedy, always do a patch test on your inner arm first. For those with oily or combination skin, avoid heavy coconut oil application and harsh scrubbing, as they tend to aggravate shine and blemishes.

Features

Compete, shine and be discovered at WCOPA 2027

Published

11 hours ago

2026/10/15

Thilina Walpola

Dream of performing on a world stage? Well, here is your unique, golden opportunity!

The World Championships of Performing Arts (WCOPA) — the one and only official “Talent Olympics” — is the world’s premier global platform for aspiring singers, dancers, actors, models, instrumentalists, etc., to compete, shine and be discovered!

And, yes, this world stage is open to YOU, Sri Lankans living in Sri Lanka and overseas!

Held annually in glittering Las Vegas, WCOPA brings together over 70 countries, all competing for Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals, just like the traditional Olympics.

Lakisha Bernard: Will represent Team Sri Lanka at WCOPA 2027

Outstanding performers vie for the coveted titles of Junior and Senior Grand Champion Performer of the World, with winners and standout participants awarded over $500,000 in scholarships, cash awards and prizes to catapult their education and careers!

Sri Lanka is already making waves! At WCOPA 2026, Natharie Wickramasinghe, representing Team Sri Lanka, made the nation proud by winning a Bronze Medal in the Ethnic/Folklore Dance category!

Lakisha: Accomplished freelance Model and Fashion Design graduate

Recruitment for this prestigious competition is handled through a system of scouts and licensed National Directors — and this is where our very own Chris Rajendra, now based in Las Vegas, and National Director for Team Sri Lanka, comes into the scene.

If you are a singer, dancer, actor, model, instrumentalist — if you have talent burning inside you — contact Chris Rajendra today for registration and, who knows, you may find yourself in Las Vegas, and proudly draped in the Sri Lankan flag, at WCOPA 2027!

The contact address is: Chris Rajendra, wcopa.nationaldirector.sl@gmail.com

or chris.rajendra@gmail.com

Meanwhile, a star is born for 2027, in the form of Lakisha Bernard who is all set to represent Team Sri Lanka at WCOPA 2027.

Originally hailing from the sun-drenched coastal city of Colombo and now carving out her creative career in Canada, 22-year-old Lakisha is stepping into the international spotlight.

This accomplished freelance Model and Fashion Design graduate has officially been appointed as the Team Sri Lanka Promoter for Canada as she prepares to represent Team Sri Lanka at WCOPA in Las Vegas.

Lakisha brings a unique blend of high-fashion sensibility, captivating camera presence and expert garment design to the Team.

Having built her career, from local college shoots to high-glamour concepts, Lakisha’s inspiring journey embodies the true spirit of cultural bridge-building and creative resilience, bringing immense pride and recognition to Sri Lanka on the global stage.

WCOPA 2027 will be held at the legendary Westgate Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, from 12th to 20th July – the very same iconic arena where the late, great Elvis Presley himself performed!

Your moment is now. Your stage is Las Vegas, so hurry and contact Chris Rajendra.