When Israel Participated in an Ethnic Cleansing Project in Myanmar

On October 15, 2024, the United Kingdom announced its decision to sanction the Israeli settler movement Amana, explaining that "Amana operates in practice as a commercial construction company. Amana has overseen the establishment of illegal outposts and provides funding and other economic resources for Israeli settlers involved in threatening and perpetrating acts of aggression and violence against Palestinian communities in the West Bank."

On February 20, 2021, the secretary general of Amana, Ze'ev (Zambish) Hever, admitted that Amana had established more than 30 settlers' "shepherd farms" in order to seize land in the West Bank. He explained that the impact of these farms extends far beyond the area occupied by their buildings, because the herds kept there require extensive grazing land. The settlers' farms, Hever explained, "has more than twice the area of built-up settlements... each farm can guard an area of thousands of acres", and he promised to establish 10 more farms.

New settlers' 'farms' and ethnic cleansing of the West Bank

Hever was right. The new settlers' "farms" became an important tool in accelerating the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank that began with its occupation in 1967. Through violence, and with the assistance of the Israeli military and police, they have helped take control of some of the last grazing and agricultural areas available to Palestinian communities. Between 2023 and 2025 alone, 185 settler farm outposts were established, covering more than 1 million dunams – about 18% of the West Bank's total area.

Not surprisingly, these settlers’ “farms” were established near some of the most vulnerable Palestinian communities of shepherds and farmers, who already suffered under Israel’s military apartheid regime from high rates of poverty, including food insecurity, inadequate water supplies and unsafe drinking water, and a lack of electricity and medical services. These communities have no means of survival other than grazing their herds and farming their land.

Each such “farm” usually begins as a home for a single settler couple and their children. Most of those working there are violent youths known as the “Hilltop Youth”, who terrorise Palestinians living in the surrounding area. From time to time, and almost daily in the vicinity of these farms, settlers and their “Hilltop Youth” volunteers or workers use violence to drive Palestinians and their herds from their land.

This harassment includes throwing stones at Palestinians and their herds, driving vehicles or riding horses through herds and fields, setting attack dogs on Palestinians and their herds, beating or whipping Palestinians and their herds, shooting or threatening to shoot them, burning or threatening to burn pastures and homes, stabbing or threatening to stab Palestinians, and making late-night, uninvited and threatening “visits” to Palestinian homes.

Following the outbreak of the war on October 7, 2023, ethnic cleansing in the West Bank accelerated, and dozens of Palestinian communities near settlers’ “farms” have been forcibly displaced through violence.

After years of supporting the construction of the “farms” behind the scenes, while providing their violent residents with security and other services and shielding them from law enforcement, the Israeli government is moving ahead with the official “legalisation” of 140 of the farms. In an official document, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu absurdly defined them as an important tool for “combating Palestinian land seizure” in the West Bank.

Defence minister Israel Katz said when he announced the launch of the legalisation program:

"Anyone who wants to see what Zionism at its best looks like, what a deep commitment to the Land of Israel is, and what a genuine connection to the land means, will find all of these in the agricultural farms in Judea and Samaria [the Israeli name for the West Bank]. This great and important enterprise is a direct continuation of the pioneering spirit that has stood firm through the generations, from the beginning of Zionism to this day. It is also a source of encouragement that gives momentum to the entire settlement enterprise."

Israel's entanglement in an ethnic cleansing project in Myanmar's Shan State

Since Myanmar gained independence from Britain on January 4, 1948, the country has experienced uninterrupted civil war in various parts of the country, mainly between the central government and ethnic minority groups. Declassified Israeli Foreign Ministry documents reveal how Israel helped Myanmar establish and reorganise its army as a modern military and, in effect, consolidate its power as the country’s dominant force. That power initially enabled the military to rule Myanmar from behind the scenes and eventually, in 1958, to remove the civilian leadership and establish a full military regime.

Declassified Foreign Ministry documents in the State Archives reveal that, alongside its significant military assistance, Israel also became entangled in an ethnic cleansing project in the Namsang region of Shan State in Myanmar, led by the army under General Ne Win.

A map showing the proposed settlement plan in Myanmar's Namsang region by Israel and the military of Myanmar. Photo: Provided by author

In a review document prepared by the Foreign Ministry’s Asia Department in June 1959, with no precise date, the Burmese military regime’s plan was described as follows: “to establish in the Namsang region settlement points built according to the Lachish Region plan, in the format of an Israeli cooperative moshav, with the settlement nuclei made up of military veterans. This is the first attempt to plan a settlement area outside Israel according to the pattern of an Israeli cooperative moshav; we hope that the success of the experiment will have repercussions in Asia.”

In a cable from late 1958, it was explained that the Burmese military chose “the Israeli form of settlement and their plan to settle the area along the lines of the Lachish Region” because its “planning and implementation had impressed them greatly.”

The Burmese army’s choice of the Lachish Region model was not accidental. It was a planning project intended to erase from the landscape any trace of the Palestinian communities who had lived there before the ethnic cleansing Israel carried out during the 1948 war and replace them with Israeli Jews.

Just as in Israel, where successive governments conveyed to citizens the perception that the land was empty and needed to be settled, rather than being an area in which large parts had been inhabited by Palestinians, most of whom were expelled in the Nakba, Israeli representatives in Myanmar initially held the false view that the Namsang region was empty or sparsely populated and could therefore be settled.

According to a cable dated February 17, 1956, sent by H. Ganati from the Israeli embassy in Yangon, an Israeli delegation had visited the Namsang region in Shan State. Ganati wrote that "the area is for the most part empty" and reported that "the heads of the military, the operations officer of the general staff, the commander of the navy and the commander of the air force participate in all our discussions. Our plan hit precisely the target they are interested in: to populate an empty region and, over time, provide an opportunity for the settlement of soldiers. The military men tell me that they want to be the implementers together with us."

Old cables reveal Shans' opposition to colonial settlement project

It soon became clear to some Israeli representatives that this was not an empty region, but an area belonging to and inhabited by the Shan ethnic minority, which strongly opposed a colonialist settlement project by Myanmar's majority group.

In a cable dated October 7, 1957, Israel's envoy in Yangon, David Hacohen, attached a summary of a conversation with Mendel Eshel, who was a member of a joint Israeli-Burmese agricultural planning committee. Eshel proposed that Israel "shelve and forget the extensive plan to establish a joint agricultural enterprise." This was due, among other things, to the "Shans' opposition to the penetration of Burmese or other foreigners into their state. They saw the Israeli survey group as pioneers of a larger settlement."

In a cable sent on February 6, 1958, Israel's ambassador in Yangon, Daniel Levin, wrote to foreign minister Golda Meir: "This experiment was supposed to form the basis for a completely unrealistic plan to jointly cultivate one million acres in Shan State. This idea was unrealistic not only because of the amount of land, but also because in Shan State they absolutely do not want a Burmese or Israeli settlement plan, and certainly not our joint plan."

In a cable sent on February 17, 1958, ambassador Levin wrote to Emmanuel Tzipori of the Asia Department: "The Shans want to achieve the removal of the Burmese army from Shan State and want to end every Burmese agricultural endeavor in the state there, meaning mainly any transfer of land into Burmese hands." Levin explained: "With our famous plan for one million acres, we entered directly into this dispute. It was clear to the Shans that the Burmese army stood behind this plan, and the meaning of the plan was, of course, also to take the land from the Shan villagers. There is no other land in Shan State... The million-acre plan in Shan State was impractical from the very beginning. Neither we nor the Burmese have the technical capacity required for it. Organised and planned agriculture does not yet exist in Shan State. The farmers living in villages clear the jungle, use the land for one or two years, and then leave it and clear the jungle somewhere else. It is almost impossible to bring them en masse to cultivate the land using organised agricultural methods."

In a cable sent on February 20, 1958, ambassador Levin, described the Israeli entanglement to Elishiv Ben-Horin of the Foreign Ministry's Asia Department. "In Burma, most of which is supposedly empty of people, supposedly jungle, wherever you step – you step on someone's foot. In time we learned from experience that there is no empty space here, but rather many forces operating within the country." Levin described meeting one of the Shan princes, when "our main purpose was to reassure him that the Government of Israel had no intention of engaging in the colonization of Shan State."

Despite this knowledge, the project continued. By the end of 1958, the Israeli delegation in Namsang had expanded to include Israelis who arrived with their families.

On March 2, 1960, Lt. Col. Alexander Gadron was appointed IDF attaché in Burma. In a cable sent on May 25, 1960, the director of the Asia Department, Yaakov Shimoni, wrote to military attaché Gadron: "We, Israel, have put our head into the thick of the problem. Even when we established the experimental farm in Kyaukme, we encountered opposition from many Shans, particularly princes and influential figures. The princess Mahadewi explained to me more than once: We Shan people strongly oppose the penetration of the Burmese in general, and of the Burmese army in particular, into our territories: all matters of agriculture, development and the like belong under the constitution not to the central government of Burma but to the local Shan government; Burmese settlement in general and Burmese military settlement in particular, without our consent and not at our initiative, is contrary to the constitution and we oppose it. We have nothing against Israel, but if Israel involves itself in the Burmese attempts to penetrate Shan State, do not be surprised if our opposition to this penetration is directed against it and its people and experts as well."

In a cable sent on July 12, 1960, Israel's ambassador in Yangon, Elishiv Ben-Horin, updated Shimoni on a meeting with the Burmese foreign minister, who told him "that in the Namsang area (that is, the area where 'our' settlement project is located) there has been rebel activity in recent months. He said this was not organised activity but rather a protest by local people. I pretended to be innocent and asked what exactly they were protesting against. The answer, with emphasis: against the military."

Israeli ambassador had acknowledged the truth

In a cable sent on September 2, 1960, the Israeli military attaché in Burma, Lt. Col. Gadron, updated Shimoni about a conversation with General Aung Gyi, who said that "in his opinion, the army's role in this project – as in other areas – is the role of a pioneer showing the way and leading, and nothing more. He is full of hope that the Shans will eventually become convinced that the army has no imperialist intentions and then reach full cooperation with them."

In another cable, sent on June 28, 1961, military attaché Lt. Col. Gadron reported that Dr. Ra’anan Weitz, who headed the Jewish Agency’s Settlement Department, had visited Myanmar for about two weeks and had also toured Namsang at the invitation of the Burmese Defense Ministry. Earlier, on June 8, 1959, General Ne Win had visited Israel, touring its industries and military bases, as well as the “Conquest of the Wilderness” exhibition, where he was guided by Dr. Weitz.

In a cable sent on November 16, 1961, ambassador Ben-Horin acknowledged the truth in a message to foreign minister Meir: "Namsang is not, of course, a project established primarily for Burmese agriculture. Had agricultural considerations been decisive, it would never have been established. There are dozens of possible projects that are cheaper in other parts of Burma. Namsang was established at the time to provide useful employment for thousands of discharged soldiers and to settle a frontier area. We, Burmese and Israelis alike, are all trying to give Namsang agricultural and other economic content, but an understanding of the background is necessary in order to understand the decisions that will be made and to handle the continuation of our work properly."

This is how the same tactics of ethnic cleansing and settlement came to be carried out in the Lachish Region within Israel, in the Namsang region of Shan State in Myanmar, and in the occupied West Bank.

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