MASS ANTI-SHAVEI DEMONSTRATION IN MANIPUR

(15 October) An estimated 200 B’nei Menashe from all over Manipur gathered in Churachandpur last Sunday to demonstrate against Shavei Israel and its monopolistic grip on the community's Aliyah to Israel. The demonstrators came from Phalbung, Saikul, Pejang, Tuolaphai, and other places in addition to a large group from Churachandpur itself. Carrying banners and chanting slogans, they demanded an end to Shavei Israel's stranglehold on the Aliyah process.

The demonstration came on the heels of the departure for Israel of some 250 B'nei Menashe immigrants, some allegedly chosen on the basis of favoritism and discrimination against B'nei Menashe who have resisted Shavei Israel's control. The protest was also sparked by the visit to Manipur of Shavei Israel's director Tzvi Khaute. Announcing that he would soon begin compiling a list of the next group of B’nei Menashe to be cleared for immigration to Israel, Khaute stressed that the only candidates to be considered would be those registered with the rump “B'nei Menashe Council” recently established by Shavei. This breakaway faction has sought to displace the official B'nei Menashe Council elected democratically last November by all 24 of Manipur’s B’nei Menashe congregations and recognized by a Manipur court as the community’s legitimate representative.

The banner close up.

The demonstration took place in front of Shavei headquarters at Churachandpur's Beit Shalom synagogue, to which the demonstrators marched from the home of former Beit Shalom official Demsat Haokip. (Demsat arrived this week in Israel with the group of 250 immigrants.) It called for a fair and transparent Aliyah process that included the many individuals and congregations whose refusal to obey Shavei Israel’s dictates has led to their being bypassed for Aliyah, sometimes for. decades. A concomitant demand was for the B’nei Menashe community’s three ordained Orthodox rabbis, all of whom have been sidelined by Shavei from the procedure of selecting new immigrants, to be made part of it.

Some of the demonstrators.

Much of the demonstrators’ anger was directed at Khaute, who is regarded by them as a corrupt and dictatorial figure. Shouts of "Down with Tzvi Khaute" and "Tzvi Khaute go back [to Israel]" were heard from many of them. Their numbers were particularly impressive given their awareness that they were risking their own chances for Aliyah by attending the protest. "I’m sticking my neck out for justice", said one of them, Hosea Kipgen of the village of Pejang. "I know that if Shavei Israel continues to be in charge, I may never make it to the Holy Land, which has been a dream of a lifetime. But bad things have been happening to our community and somebody has to take a stand against them."

The demonstration was given wide coverage by the local Manipuri media. Two newspapers, Manipur Express and Nisin Thuhiltu and two local cable TV stations, TCNews Thusoh and Tualsung Thuthang reported on it in detail.

A report from Manipur Express.

The article above reads like this:

DISCONTENT OVER SHAVEI ISRAEL BRING CONFLICT

Lamka, Oct 10: This morning there was a gathering of people who were unhappy over the Bnei Menashe Council which has been split into two at the Shavei Israel Hebrew Centre, B. Vengnom by members of the Bnei Menashe community against a Jerusalem based organization, Shavei Israel who was blamed for bringing about this division of the community. Shavei Israel assists lost Jews, in particular, the Bnei Menashe from the northeast India to Israel. The Bnei Menashe Council in northeast India is in possession of registration under the Co-operative Society, Churachandpur along with its own constitution and byelaws to help administration. Shavei Israel has been interfering through its director, Tzvi Khaute by appointing Paolam Singson as chairman at Boljol on October 3, 2021.

In accordance to the byelaw, a general meeting was called on October 25, 2020 and decisions were taken to call for election on the November 5, 2020 which saw W. L. Hangshing(retd IRS) against Sehjalal Kipgen (Shavei Administrator Manipur) for the post of the chairman. Votes were cast and W. L. Hangshing emerged as the winner. It came to be seen that Shavei had been using the Bnei Menashe for their economic benefits. Since W. L. Hangshing became the chairman, it was revealed that the BMC bank account had been closed by them and an amount of Rs. 77.2 lacs(7,72,000) which, according to the byelaw Article 13(d), was to have been subject to audit was found missing and Meital Singson had closed the bank account without giving notice to anyone. An FIR had been lodged at the Churachandpur Police Station.

The complainants also reported that Shavei Israel tried to hold a re-election on the November 2020 but the Churachandpur Magistrate Court put a restraining order against that. It has been learnt that Shavei director, Tzvi Khaute and Shavei Administrator set up a fake election in contravention of the court's ruling and propped up an illegal BMC on the 26th August 2021. On September 26, 2021, they organised their first meeting while distributing bogus BMC census, which has led to the splitting of the Bnei Menashe into two.

Supporters of the original BMC gathered at Beit Shalom, B. Vengnom to present their anger by saying that BMC has laws to deal with this. There is no need to bring in a foreign NGO like Shavei who has been unnecessarily interfering in the Bnei Menashe community and an appeal will be made to the Israeli, Indian and the Manipur governments to prevent Shavei Israel from entering into internal matters of the Bnei Menashe.

Noteworthily, three days before the demonstration, Khaute met with Lalam Hangshing, the legal B'nei Menashe Council's elected chairman, in the latter's Imphal home. Although Shavei Israel spokeman claimed that at this meeting Hangshing capitulated to Khaute and accepted his authority, Hangshing scoffed at this. The meeting was held, he informed our Newsletter, at Khaute’s request and it was Khaute who did most of the talking, devoting nearly two hours to defending himself against the charges against him. “I simply sat there and listened,” says Hangshing, who dismissed the meeting as a Shavei PR stunt. “Khaute made no concessions and I certainly made none of my own. He obviously prefers the status quo of being in sole charge of everything.”

On the whole, Shavei officials, while reportedly taken aback by the demonstration's size, did not react publicly to it. The one exception was Shavei Advisory Board member Eliezer Baite who wrote to a Shavei WhatsApp group; "I haven’t heard any of you speak up. Are we going to take this sitting down? If we allow them [the demonstrators] to keep it up, there will be more and more of it. Let’s take action against these nobodies who have risen against Shavei. We need to strike back and silence them."

250 B'NEI MENASHE ARRIVE IN ISRAEL

(October 14) A group of 250 B'nei Menashe olim from Manipur landed Wednesday at Ben Gurion Airport. Traveling on a flight arranged by Shavei Israel, the private Jerusalem-based organization tasked with bringing them, the group comprised the last of 722 B'nei Menashe whose Aliyah, though approved in 2015, was delayed for years by Israeli government procrastination.

The immigrants were welcomed at the airport by the Minister of Aliyah and Absorption, Pnina Tamano-Shata. After a brief ceremony, they were taken to an absorption center at an undisclosed site, where they will spend the next three months studying Hebrew and preparing for their rabbinical conversion to Judaism. Subsequently, they will be given housing in the northern city of Nof ha-Galil (formerly Upper Nazareth), as were the two groups that preceded them.

The immigrants flew to Israel from Manipur's capital of Imphal via New Delhi, where mishaps betook several of them. In one case, a small child was diagnosed with Covid-19 and she and her family were unable to continue on their way. In other instances, persons were discovered not to have Israeli visas. How they could have boarded the Imphal-New Delhi flight without them is unclear.

But the most curious case was that of 35-year-old Nachshon Haokip, who was traveling with his wife and two small children. Nachshon had angered Shavei Israel by participating in the Degel Menashe food relief campaign in the summer of 2020 that Shavei opposed and by refusing to sign the oath of allegiance to it that it had demanded from all the immigrants. In addition, his brother, Hillel Haokip, is a known anti-Shavei activist in Israel.

Although nevertheless included in the group, Nachshom was informed upon reaching New Delhi that he could not proceed further because details on his Israeli visa did not match those on his Indian passport: whereas the passport bore his Kuki first name of Henjangam, his visa had his Hebrew name of Nachshon, and while the passport correctly gave his year of birth as 1986, the visa stated it as 1982. The devastated Nachshon, forced to part from his wife and children who continued to Israel, received a telephone call from Shavei Israel's chairman Michael Freund telling him to return to Manipur and expressing the hope that he would eventually be able to rejoin his family.

Could it be a coincidence that the one person in the group of 250 whose passport and visa did not tally was someone who had been on Shavei Israel’s blacklist? The details in Nachshon's passport were, like those of all the immigrants, forwarded by Shavei Israel to the Ministry of Interior in Jerusalem, which then issued the visa. No one in Jerusalem could have known Nachshon's Hebrew name. Only Shavei’s office could have substituted it for his Kuki one.

This and the incorrect date of birth inevitably lead one to wonder whether Shavei, unable to punish Nachshon by removing him from the government-authorized 2015 list, deliberately falsified details of his passport in order to render his visa invalid. His being ordered back to Manipur only strengthens the suspicion. Would not another telephone call, a simple clarification from Michael Freund to the Ministry of Interior, affirming that Nachshon was the victim of a clerical mistake on Shavei’s part, have sufficed to allow him to fly with his family to Israel?

INDIAN EMBASSY HOLD ANNUAL HAIFA BATTLE COMMEMORATION WITH B'NEI MENASHE DELEGATE IN ATTENDANCE

(8 October): The Indian Embassy in Israel held its annual commemoration on Thursday, October 7th of the conquest of Haifa by Indian troops in the final stages of World War 1. Although the commemoration usually takes place on the 23rd September, the day on which Indian troops conquered the city from its Turkish, German and Austrian defenders, it was held 2 weeks later because of previous covid19 restrictions. In attendance at the ceremony as an invited representative of the Israel's B'nei Menashe community was Isaac Thangjom, the Executive Director of Degel Menashe.

Isaac Thangjom signing the ceremony's guestbook.

While only a minor footnote in the history books, the Battle of Haifa is memorable for several reasons. It was the first time that Indian troops, who served widely in the British imperial army during World War 1 fought entirely under the command of their own officers. And it may well have been the last time in the annals of modern warfare in which an "old-fashioned" cavalry charge was successfully executed.

The battle took place during the last week of Gen. Edmund Allenby's Palestine campaign, which took a sudden turn when the British Army broke through Turkish lines in mid-September and turned what had been a standstill into a rout. The troops participating in the battle came from its ranks of Jodhpur Lancers, Mysore Lancers and the Hyderabad Lancers. Their task was to clear the narrow strip of flat land between the Mediterranean Sea and Mt Carmel on which Haifa, at that time a small town was located, and to clear the path for further advance to Acre. They faced two main obstacles: the swamp along the Kishon river, which blocked their path of the advance and the German and Austrian machine gun and artillery emplacements on the lower slope of the mountain. Armed with nothing but swords and lancers, the three battalions swept under heavy fire through the area that is now downtown Haifa and reached the Kishon while foot soldiers outflanked and captured enemy gun positions. In the end, the Turkish troops they were supposed to be supporting having fled, the Germans and the Austrians surrendered. 1,350 prisoners were taken by the Indians at the expense of 34 wounded and 8 killed, including the Commanding Officer, Dalpat Singh Shekhawat.

Indian soldiers with Indian and Israeli flags.

The ceremony of the commemoration started at 9 am at the Indian Military Cemetery at the bottom of Mt Carmel. The Indian Defense Attaché, Group Captain Sundaramani Krishnan conducted the commemoration. The Ambassador H. E. Sanjeev Singla gave a tribute on the contribution of the Jodhpur Lancers on the final

assault that liberated the Haifa from the Turks. Mr. Gary Koren followed talking about the wonderful relationship between the countries, trade, economic ties, defense and off course, tourism. Indian contingent from the UNDOF performed the Guard of Honour. The Haifa Police band played the Indian and Israeli national anthem. The last item, laying of the wreath, the first one by the Indian Ambassador and then, Mr. Gary Koren followed by imminent citizens like Mr. Nissim Moses, a Bnei Israel historian and other prominent personalities including those of Indian origin. Then it was laid by various Defense Attachès of countries like the US, Britain, Canada, Germany, Poland, South Korea, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Australia, Japan and several others.

Ambassador Singla and Defence Attaché, Group Captain Krishnan speaking at the ceremony.

Indian soldiers fought with the British Army in a number of battles in 1917-18 and some 900 are buried today in cemeteries all over Israel. Although, Gen. Allenby's conquest of Palestine is generally regarded as marginal to the conduct of World War 1, it was in fact, a crucial element in hastening the war's end with the total collapse of the Turkish 7th and 8th Army that had faced Allenby's troops, there was nothing to prevent the British from sweeping through Turkey itself and threatening German and Austrian lines from the south. When the Central Powers surrendered soon after in November 1918, the speed with which they did so was partly a result of Allenby's victory.

Guests at the ceremony.

An interesting sidelight to this story is that two battalions of Jabotinsky's Jewish Legion, the 38th and the 39th of the Royal Fusiliers, fought in the same British breakthrough. Of the opposite side of the front from the Indians, they crossed the Jordan, north of Jericho and took part in the British conquest of Trans-Jordan. The only time in which Indian and Jewish units have ever fought together, this can be thought of as the first harbinger of the close cooperation between India and Israel today.