Sri Lanka’s post-independence development drive, particularly the Mahaweli Development Project, reflected unexpected Israeli influences — from the vision of D.S. Senanayake to the resettlement strategies of the late 20th century. These interactions reshaped the island’s socio-ethnic and political landscape in subtle but lasting ways.

In Sri Lanka, the public reaction to the State of Israel has always been a twisted one, mixed with worries triggered by conspiracy theories, false narratives, and various phobic factors. While acknowledging these good, bad, and ugly aspects as dots connected to the same web that encompasses Israel’s complex role in modern Sri Lankan political history, it is imperative to examine how Sri Lanka’s largest development project in the post-independence era fell under Israeli influence—an influence that altered the socio-ethnic fabric of the island.

Jewish Agricultural Models 

The Mahaweli Development Project, officially launched in 1961, represents the largest engineering initiative undertaken in Sri Lanka. Although conceptualized in 1960, the motivations for this project can be traced back to the period following independence from British rule. Don Stephen Senanayake, the first prime minister of independent Sri Lanka, envisioned national development aligned with the island's ancient hydraulic civilization. Senanayake’s proposal to establish agricultural settlements in the dry zone drew inspiration from contemporary examples—most notably the Jewish settlements in the British Mandate of Palestine.

To encourage Senanayake to model Sri Lankan agricultural settlements after those established by Jewish communities, then Land Commissioner C.L. Wickremasinghe visited the British Mandate in Palestine. Another influential civil servant, Sir Arthur Ranasinghe, also encouraged Senanayake to adopt the agricultural innovations of the Zionist movement. Sir Arthur reportedly presented Senanayake with a copy of Fellah’s Farm, published by the Jewish Agency in Palestine, which later served as inspiration for Senanayake’s conceptualization of agricultural settlements.

Both Sir Arthur Ranasinghe and H.A.J. Hulugalle, the author of Senanayake’s biography, held strong pro-Zionist views that influenced their approach to foreign policy as prominent advisers in Senanayake’s administration. Hulugalle frequently expressed admiration for the collectivist principles of the kibbutz system, as described in his posthumously published memoirs. The kibbutz, which combined Zionist ideology with utopian socialism and emphasized national revival, transformed prevailing stereotypes of Jews as merchants and moneylenders into an image of a community committed to defending the land.

Although there is no definitive historical evidence that Senanayake directly adopted the kibbutz model, it can be inferred that Hulugalle, Wickremasinghe, and Ranasinghe played a significant role in shaping Senanayake’s Gal Oya agricultural settlement, which closely resembled the Jewish settlements observed in the British Mandate.

Senanayake’s 1935 booklet, Agriculture and Patriotism, reflects his political idealism and the goals he sought for independent Sri Lanka. His vision in the text is strikingly similar to the Jewish agricultural settlements in Palestine in the early 1930s. The ethos Senanayake promoted—self-resilience and a prosperous peasantry—mirrored the aspirations of the Zionist movement in Palestine.

Mahaweli Development Programme 

The second phase of Israeli connection in Sri Lanka’s agricultural settlements is aptly manifested in the Mahaweli Development Programme (MDP)—the largest development project engineered in post-independent Sri Lanka. Political geographer Thiruni Kelegama argues that the government that came to power after 1977 accelerated the MDP along ethno-nationalist lines similar to those of the World Zionist Organization’s Settlement Division under Matityahu Drobles, responsible for the development of settlements in Judea and Samaria.

When first presented in the early 1970s, the MDP aimed to finish within 30 years and was envisioned as a movement dedicated to fostering village life—the nerve center of Sri Lanka’s development. The romanticized objectives of this long-term plan intensified after the electoral victory of J.R. Jayawardene’s government in 1977. The new administration sought to shorten the MDP’s duration from 30 years to five.

These ambitious goals faced major obstacles as ethnic conflict emerged in Sri Lanka. This conflict implicitly gave Israel an opening to resume diplomatic ties with Colombo. Amid the complex Cold War dynamics in South Asian politics, Israel entered the Sri Lankan situation at a time when Tamil insurgent groups were receiving support from India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).

Enter Israeli Advisers 

The acceleration of the MDP as a quick remedy for Sri Lanka’s energy and resettlement goals stemmed from the work of an Israeli agent named Amy Yar. His close ties with J.R. Jayawardene’s administration resulted in more Israelis arriving on the island under the guise of agricultural experts.

Gamini Dissanayake, who oversaw much of the project, maintained good relations with several Israeli agricultural advisers. Two academics from Hebrew University, Jerusalem, provided a comprehensive analysis of the project for the Sri Lankan government, and a major portion of the work was awarded to the Israeli construction company Solel Boneh.

Israeli architect Ulrik Plesner arrived in Sri Lanka in 1981 to plan new towns in the Mahaweli settlements in the hill country. In Plesner’s own words, “I tried to make towns which ten years from now will be pleasant to live in.” Plesner incorporated basic planning principles reminiscent of Jewish settlements in Palestine—such as locating all buildings off the main road to create a dense, urban character with streets, squares, and shaded public spaces. His Mahaweli plans bore remarkable parallels with Israeli settlements such as Ma’ale Adumim and Ariel, highlighting a mutual justification for demographic engineering.

Gamini Dissanayake’s initiatives to resettle Sinhalese peasants in Maduru Oya—later discontinued after public exposure—demonstrate the influence of Israeli settlement policies in Judea and Samaria as a means of preventing external penetration.

Minister Dissanayake’s associate, Herman Malinga Gunaratne, organized the settlement of Sinhalese populations in Maduru Oya to disrupt the territorial continuity between the Batticaloa and Trincomalee districts. Gunaratne actively promoted the formation of settlers’ militias to protect Sinhalese communities from attacks by Tamil insurgents. Drawing on Yigal Allon’s The Making of the Israeli Army, Gunaratne argued that just as every Jewish settler became a soldier, every Sinhalese settler should be prepared to take up arms for self-defense.

Legacy and Lasting Impact

This controversial project of the mid-1980s, inspired by Israeli models, ultimately failed to achieve its intended outcomes. Nevertheless, Israeli involvement left a lasting imprint on the Mahaweli Development Project and agricultural settlements in Sri Lanka. The continuing association between the military and the Mahaweli Development Project may, in part, be attributed to practices introduced by Israeli advisers during the 1980s.

(The author is a lecturer at the Faculty of Law, General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University, Sri Lanka. Views expressed are personal. He can be reached at punsaraprint10@gmail.com)