Labour Minister: Govt. won’t heed demand for severing diplomatic ties with Israel, halt sending workers

‘Bid to derail plans to send over 40,000 to Israel’

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Labour and Foreign Employment Minister Manusha Nanayakkara yesterday (15) said Sri Lanka wouldn’t under any circumstances stop sending workers to Israel.

Minister Nanayakkara was responding to main Opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) demand that the Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa government sever diplomatic ties with the Jewish State and halt sending workers in order to condemn the ongoing military operations in Gaza.

Minister Nanayakkara said so at an event held at the Foreign Employment Bureau.

Referring to the statements that had been made in Parliament on Tuesday (14), Minister Nanayakkara, who had been elected on the SJB ticket at the last parliamentary polls, alleged that Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa and some other members of the Opposition were making a desperate bid to win over Muslim votes at the forthcoming presidential poll.

Minister Nanayakkara said that criticising Israel in our Parliament was a futile exercise as it couldn’t make any difference on the ground.

Sri Lanka established full diplomatic ties with Israel in 2000 after the fall of the strategically located Elephant Pass military base. During the war Israel supplied a range of weapons, including Fast Attack Craft (FACs) and Kfir attack aircraft.

Minister Nanayakkara dismissed anti-Israeli statements made both in and outside Parliament by Sajith Premadasa, Rauff Hakeem, MP, leader of SLMC, a constituent of SJB and JVP, as politically motivated rhetoric.

Declaring that Sri Lanka maintained friendly relations with Israel and Palestine, Minister Nanayakkara emphasised as a country that fought terrorism and brought the war to a successful conclusion 15 years ago, we should realise that we couldn’t interfere in the Gaza conflict.

Minister Nanayakkara alleged that the Opposition was making a despicable bid to sabotage government efforts to send 40,000 people to Israel on higher salaries.

“We are in such a desperate situation. Therefore, we are not in a position to interfere in the Israel war on Gaza.”

Minister Nanayakkara said that the SJB leader played politics with the Gaza war with his eyes on Muslim votes.

Minister Nanayakkara also condemned SJB allegations that Sri Lanka was sending workers to fill vacancies created by the banning of Palestinians working in Israel.

Israel has declined to halt military operations even after the US suspended some weapons shipments in a bid to pressure Israel not to attack Rafah.