Uzis, Commando Training and Fish: How Israel Propped Up Nepal's Dictatorial Monarchy
From the time it established relations with Nepal, Israel sold it arms and offered its citizens and military various kinds of training programs. Declassified documents reveal that Israel knew it was helping the dictatorial monarchy suppress dissent
Oct 19, 2024
On March 15, 2024, Israel's ambassador to Kathmandu, Hanan Goder, informed the media of his country that the families of the Nepalese agriculture students who were murdered on October 7 at Kibbutz Alumim, as well as the family of Bipin Joshi, the student who was abducted to the Gaza Strip, had been recognized by Israel's National Insurance Institute as "hostile action casualties" and would receive compensation like that of the families of the Israelis who had been murdered or abducted. "The Nepalese students came to Israel as our guests," Goder said. "After the massacre, they became part of our family, and it is our responsibility to look after them."
Since the two countries first established relations, in 1960, thousands of Nepalese students have attended Israeli universities and colleges, taking courses in agriculture, engineering, biochemistry and other subjects. The Foreign Ministry has sent instructors and scholar to Nepal to give courses there as well. Israel has helped to pave roads and establish civilian infrastructure and irrigation systems in what is one of Southeast Asia's poorest and least developed countries. Some of the Nepalese students who had fond memories of their stay in Israel continue to this day to attend its Independence Day celebrations at the embassy in Kathmandu. Nepal has also long been a favored destination among Israeli trekkers.
Documents dealing with Israel-Nepal relations, held in the Foreign Ministry files at the state archives and declassified over the past two years, reveal that the aid to Nepal has had a less positive side too. As early as the 1960s, Israel was training and arming the king's authoritarian security forces.
In August 1960, Nepal's first democratically elected prime minister, B.P. Koirala, visited Israel. During his stay, Deputy Defense Minister Shimon Peres promised him a gift of Uzi submachine guns. The promise was fulfilled when Israel shipped 41 Uzis, along with 75 carp (fish), to Nepal. In a cable to the Foreign Ministry dated that November 22, Israel's ambassador to Burma, Eliashiv Ben-Horin, reported on a visit he had made to Nepal's capital. "Of the 75 carp that were sent to Kathmandu, 25 remained alive, and that is a great many. I visited them at their pool and they seem to feel like fish in water […] Of the 41 Uzis that arrived, the prime minister took 5 for his adjutants and bodyguards, 10 for the king's personal guard and 25 for general use in the army. The weapon on which his [Koirala's] name is engraved is of course kept in his home as a souvenir."
In September 1963, during a visit to Israel, King Mahendra Beer Bikram Shah Deva toured Israel Defense Forces bases, in the company of Peres. A survey prepared by the Foreign Ministry ahead of the visit noted that the king had staged a coup in December 1960 in which he had deposed the Koirala government and imprisoned its members, revoked the constitution and banned all activity by political parties, thus turning Nepal into "an absolute monarchy."
During his visit, the king asked Israel to set up a plant to manufacture Uzis in Nepal. Israel did not consider this a viable project, but not because of any concern about the recent regime change. In fact, Foreign Minister Golda Meir did express Israel's agreement to export Uzis to Nepal.
In a February 15, 1965, cable to the Foreign Ministry, Moshe Erel, Israel's ambassador to Kathmandu, reported that over dinner with the king and queen, the king told him that an airborne police unit could be useful for his country. By April 4, Erel informed the Foreign Ministry that the king's chief secretary had requested a cost estimate for sending officers to undergo paratroop training in Israel. On May 30, the commander of the IDF's Paratroops School, Lt. Col. Avraham Orly, arrived in Nepal to carry out a survey of the available training options there.
On July 18, 1965, Ambassador Erel informed Jerusalem that the government of Nepal had on the previous day approved the program proposed by Israel. It would begin training for paratroops instructors and an initial company in Israel, with Israeli funding, to be followed by the establishment of a training facility in Nepal by Israel, with the cost to be covered by Nepal. The fact that Israel was training Nepalese paratroopers was reported in real time in the Israeli media, but the Foreign Ministry's documents reveal new details about the nature of the training and its intended purpose.
Nepal had neither the intention nor the ability to do battle against its gargantuan neighbors, India and China, although both had meddled in its domestic affairs. The personnel being trained by Israel were to be used to suppress insurgents against the absolute monarchy and its policies. Israel knew very well what it was doing. As Erel explained already in the July 18 cable, "The logic of forming a paratroops unit in Nepal's army [is that] the government's hand doesn't extend to all parts of the country, because of a lack of transportation routes and airfields. From this fact stems not only a natural problem of national security, but also in regard to the ability to restrain violent and aggressive actors from among local property owners and people of means from interfering with positive actions of the government."
If that wasn't explicit enough, a summary drawn up by the ministry on March 10, 1966, of a visit by Nepal's ambassador to the paratroops school where his country's soldiers were training, stated that the ambassador explained to his escorts from Israel's foreign and defense ministries that the project's "central goal" was "to create a deterrent force that could prevent internal uprisings." He added, "We don't believe that Nepal can fight its neighboring countries, all of which are stronger."
In a January 16, 1968, telegram sent by Col. Asher Gonen to the Ministry of Defense, a week after a visit by him to Nepal, he described the country as being under the thumb of a "totalitarian regime."
On November 16, 1969, Israel's then-ambassador to Kathmandu, Mordechai Avgar, reported to Jerusalem that "movements to promote democracy are being felt, namely against the king's absolute rule, and broad segments of the public are voicing criticism and dissatisfaction." Avgar added, "There is no doubt that King Mahendra and the security forces at his disposal are trying to suppress all [political] organizing," and he warned, "There is no doubt that the democratic forces view all direct Israeli military aid as an _expression_ of readiness to support the existing regime. Our help in heightening the efficiency of Nepal's army could be interpreted, in time, as directed against them."
The director of the Israeli training center in Nepal was Lt. Col. Aryeh Tuvia (born Marcel Tobias), who commanded Israeli retaliatory raids into the West Bank in the 1950s, and was known in the IDF as the "father of the Paratroops." In a series of cables he sent to the Foreign Ministry from 1969 to 1971, Tuvia reported that in addition to training paratroopers, he had instructed hundreds of local combat troops and dozens of officers in commando methods. In a cable dated September 3, 1969, for example, Tuvia reported that he had reached an agreement with Nepal's army chief of staff to provide commando training to militias serving the regime. "Militias," he explained, "are company-sized units that serve in areas of the Tibetan and Indian border and in areas where their homes and families are."
On January 4, 1970, Tuvia informed the Foreign Ministry that he had launched a "commando-instructors course for 140 cadets" with the participation of "17 officers from various units." In addition, police officers were also taking part in paratroops training. On April 6, 1971, he sent a cable stating that a "royal guard" had been formed in the palace, whose commander and officers had "all undergone a commando course under me." Moreover, "All these appointments had been made in accordance with my recommendation."
Tuvia apparently knew the purpose of the military training he was providing in Nepal. Thus, in a cable dated September 3, 1969, he advised Jerusalem that some in Nepal's army were suspicious of and even opposed both to enlarging the paratroops unit and creating commando units, because of "their belief that Nepal will not go to war with its neighbors." In a cable of February 1, 1970, he noted that in the east and south of Nepal there were villages "known to be very strongly pro-communist, and there are always demonstrations there by anti-government students and [other] elements."
On December 15, 1971, after Lt. Col. Tuvia's mission had already been extended several times, and in light of budget cuts back in Israel, the Israeli ambassador to Kathmandu at the time, Mordechai Schneerson, informed Crown Prince Birendra that Israel had decided to terminate the activity of the mission, after having successfully put in place a military training infrastructure that Nepal would be able to maintain and develop on its own. Tuvia left Nepal on July 8, 1971, having worked to the last minute to complete a final commando instructors course. Less than a year later, on November 11, 1972, he was killed in a parachuting accident in Zaire.
Cables from the Kathmandu embassy to Jerusalem in the years 1971-1972 reported on the suppression of opponents to the monarchy. For example, in a wire sent on January 5, 1972, diplomatic representative Ilan Sofer reported on the arrest of five individuals who had been putting out a weekly magazine critical of the regime. On March 14, Ambassador Avshalom Caspi reported that "fierce measures" had been taken against landless people who had settled in a certain area and were refusing to leave, adding that "the police used great force, including gunfire (one person was reported killed and several wounded)."
King Mahendra died of a heart attack on January 31, 1972, and was succeeded by his son Birendra. Later that year, on November 30, 1972, Caspi reported that "we have excellent relations with the king and his family," pointing out that Birendra had continued his father's "absolute rule." Two and a half years later, on May 25, 1975, he reported back to the ministry that the press was under strict government surveillance, and that "public opinion in Nepal is virtually nonexistent."
Although the paratroops training had been halted upon Tuvia's departure, Israel went on supplying military aid. For example, a January 29, 1975, cable from the Foreign Ministry to Ambassador Caspi reported that 10,000 9-mm. Uzi rounds were on their way to Nepal.
In February 1979, student strikes and demonstrations broke out across the country. In a series of cables back home, Ambassador Shamai Zvi Laor reported that the police "and also the well-armed special forces are in evidence in the streets," that many students had been wounded and that "in one city, 30 people were killed in demonstrations." Writing on May 15, 1979, Laor quoted the king's chief secretary as having told him that "granting freedom of assembly to the students is liable to create an opening for a demand for similar organizing on the part of various political elements who are waiting for the opportunity."
A survey prepared by the Foreign Ministry in June 1982 stated that in the wake of the student unrest, the king had been compelled "to implement a series of reforms, the main part of which was forgoing some of his constitutional powers and [introducing] greater democratization." As the Foreign Ministry saw it, the opposition had scored a certain victory, "but it was offset by indirect restrictions aimed at emptying democracy of genuine content."
On July 7, 1982, Ambassador Shaul Kariv informed the ministry that his American counterpart in Nepal had recommended to him that Israel establish a connection between the local secret service and the Mossad. In response to his question of whether Israel was selling arms to Nepal, Kariv had replied, "We are selling small quantities of light arms to the army of Nepal. The truth is that this is almost our only export to Nepal, and the orders in the past half year total about $700,000." Toward the end of the following year, on December 21, 1983, Kariv reported that Israeli sales of light arms and ammunition to Nepal during that year had declined in value to only $90,000, due to difficulties with shipments.
In the meantime, on March 9, 1983, representatives of the Mossad did indeed visit Nepal and meet with the head of the secret service there. According to the report filed by on one of them, the Nepalis asked the Israeli agency to run a "course for field intelligence officers for 10 cadets – this subject is apparently extremely important to them." King Birendra's secretary undertook to coordinate this with the Mossad. In September 1983, Israel appointed a military attaché to Nepal, and talks got underway for the renewal of paratroops training.
A Foreign Ministry memo from May 1985 stated that Israel was selling Nepal arms and that paratroops training had been approved. According to a September 22 cable from the Foreign Ministry to Israel's United Nations delegation in New York, "Recently a group of paratroopers from Nepal visited Israel and underwent training in parachuting instruction." On January 16, 1987, Ambassador to Kathmandu Baruch Gilad informed Jerusalem that he had visited the Pokhara area. In talks he held with the senior local official, the envoy noted, Israel came in for praise for training the country's paratroopers, and he had also been told that there were carp in Nepal known as "Israeli fish" – the descendants of those dispatched there together with the Uzis in November 1960. A cable from the embassy in Kathmandu to the Foreign Ministry's Asia Desk, dated October 22, 1987, stated that Nepal's deputy chief of staff, Gen. Singh, who had visited Israel, requested aid for internal security, paratroops and intelligence. IDF Chief of Staff Dan Shomron "responded to the request in a positive spirit; the Defense Ministry also agreed to send two representatives to Nepal to conduct a survey on these subjects.
Parallel to continuing to provide security aid to Nepal, Israel was aware of the ongoing severe political crisis there. In a cable dated March 5, 1980, Ambassador Laor quoted the director general of Nepal's Foreign Ministry as telling him, "The police will be able to control the situation if needed and will not even need to turn to the army. The methods the police have been adopting lately are instilling fear and there is no concern that they will not overcome troublemakers."
A summary of a meeting held in Israel's Foreign Ministry on November 8, 1981, noted that "a coup is possible if the opposition unites. Suppression of students' strikes by violent means can be expected." Israel's ambassador to Nepal, Anne-Marie Lambert-Finkler, reported to the ministry on May 2, 1986, that in early June 1985 the Congress Party had started to organize nonviolent demonstrations throughout the country in order to persuade the king to take steps toward advancing democracy. However, in the wake of explosions next to a luxury hotel in Kathmandu owned by the king's uncle, "about 1,700 people were arrested... among them many who are active in the Congress Party, even though it was clear that the Congress Party had nothing to do with the explosions."
Another cable to the Foreign Ministry from the embassy in Kathmandu, from September 9, 1986, reported that there had been an assassination attempt on the editor of a newspaper that had been critical of political corruption in the country. Because the attempt was made with weapons that were in the possession of the army and the police, it was suspected that the regime was behind it. Ambassador Baruch Gilad reported to the Foreign Ministry on September 9, 1987, that there was a problem of political prisoners in the country and that the parliament functioned as a "rubber stamp" for the government.
In April 1990, extensive disturbances broke out in Nepal, leading the king to introduce a "constitutional monarchy" and a multiparty regime. In June 1993, the prime minister, G.P. Koirala – a brother of B.P. Koirala, the country's first democratically elected premier – visited Israel together with "advisers and security personnel." According to the Foreign Ministry's summary of the visit, "Nepal is one of the friendliest countries to Israel and is among the few countries in Asia that maintained diplomatic relations with [Israel over time], despite heavy pressure. That stands the Nepalese in good stead to this day, and we are repaying Nepal." In fact, the ministry's files contain dozens of telegrams describing the pressures Nepal was subject to from Arab countries that sold it oil and gave it loans, and where many Nepali nationals were employed.
It was noted that the young multiparty democratic regime was under threat from "several extreme left-wing parties that abused the freedom and tried to impose their views by holding violent demonstrations, shuttering shops and stopping traffic." In 1992, the ministry added, violent and mass-casualty demonstrations had erupted because of the grave economic situation. Accordingly, the Nepalese delegation headed by Koirala had visited facilities of Israel's military industry and taken part in "a wing-presentation ceremony for Nepalese paratroops" at a base in Kfar Syrkin. Summing up, the report noted that "in recent years, the Nepalese army has purchased equipment of various types totalling about $2 million in value."
Later documents of the Foreign Ministry remain classified. However, despite all of the Israeli military aid to Nepal in the form of arms and training, it didn't save the regime: In 1996 a full-scale civil war broke out in Nepal. On June 1, 2001, the crown prince, Dipendra, perpetrated a massacre of the royal family, in which his father, King Birendra, was not spared. He then shot himself.