Israeli Backpackers Attacked in Srinagar
On Thursday, June 27, 1991, Muslim terrorists attacked a group of Israeli backpackers in Srinagar, the capital of the state of Jammu and Kashmir in northern India. Though unarmed, the Israelis grappled with their assailants and, in the course of their struggle, Erez Cahana, who had led the Israeli resistance to the attackers and fought bravely, was murdered. Three other Israelis were wounded and a fifth – Ya’ir Yitzhaki – disappeared. After a while it became clear that he had hidden for several hours and, when he emerged to quench his thirst, he was captured by members of the Muslim group that had attacked him and his companions.
The wounded Israelis were taken by Indian soldiers to the military hospital in Srinagar, where they were hospitalized. The Indian army also arranged for the transfer of the corpse of the murdered Israeli to Israel, in coordination with the Israeli consulate in Bombay.
Reuven Merhav, Dir Gen ““ Foreign Ministry added a directive that I was not to shy away from diplomatic talks if such were to materialize, since there had been no diplomatic contacts between the two countries for many years.
At that time I served as deputy director general of Israel’s foreign ministry and head of its Asia, Africa and Oceania Department. On June 28 Reuven Merhav, director general of the foreign ministry, ordered me to travel to India to arrange for the transfer of the wounded to Israel and to take whatever action was possible to free the Israeli who had been abducted. In a general sense, he added a directive that I was not to shy away from diplomatic talks if such were to materialize, since there had been no diplomatic contacts between the two countries for many years.
Concurrently, Merhav initiated several preliminary measures: he ordered Giora Becher, our consul in Bombay, to notify the Indian foreign ministry of my scheduled arrival and to request that I be granted an entrance permit. He also contacted Dr. Gabrielle Menegatti, the Italian ambassador in New Delhi, who he had befriended when they served together as consuls general in Hong Kong years earlier, and asked him to extend any possible assistance to me, as we had no Israeli representation whatsoever in New Delhi from which I could operate or which could assist me.
By coincidence, at that time Menashe Zipori, another foreign ministry official, was also in India. Merhav ordered him to fly to Srinagar, so that he would be close by to help in the event that we succeeded in freeing the abducted Israeli. He was also charged with visiting the wounded. The Indian army assumed responsibility for his welfare. The Indian foreign ministry informed the Israeli consul in Bombay that “We have no objection to the arrival in New Delhi of a senior official of your government so that we can apprise him of the steps that the Government of India has taken to bring about the release of Ya’ir Yitzhaki, who appears to have been abducted.”
In the absence of direct flights between Israel and India at that time, I flew via Europe and arrived in New Delhi towards dawn on Monday, July 1. The Italian Ambassador Menegatti welcomed me at the airport and offered his assistance in any manner I might require, including the telephone and office services of his embassy. He even brought me a file of press clippings which had appeared since the incident in Srinagar. Representatives of the Indian foreign ministry also arrived and arranged my entrance permit.
The First Diplomatic Contacts
Prior to my arrival in New Delhi, the Indian foreign ministry published a press release which stipulated that India’s behaviour with regard to the incident in Kashmir was being guided solely by humanitarian considerations; that my visit was of a “consular” nature only, and that it would include no diplomatic discussions whatsoever with the foreign ministry; and that there would be no change in India’s policy toward Israel.
I arrived in New Delhi on July 2, 1991. A message awaited me from Professor M. L. Sondhi, head of the International Relations Department of Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi and a loyal friend of Israel, who later on was to be of great help in fostering relations between our two countries. We met that very same day, and he explained that the changes in the recent international climate, the improvement in Israel’s international standing and even the incident in Kashmir, which stimulated a wave of support for Israel in India, all converged to create favourable conditions for bringing about a positive change in India’s attitude toward Israel. It was his opinion, therefore, that my visit was a welcome opportunity to conduct meetings.
Kao agreed that the time had come to bring about a change in the nature of our relationship, but explained why he did not believe this to be possible within the foreseeable future.
Sondhi emphasized that for years he had been working locally to gain support for the establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel, and that he had been doing so as an Indian patriot and as one who believed that this would best serve India’s national interests. In his opinion India and Israel should become allies and help each other, despite the huge difference in their size and the size of their populations, because both countries faced similar dangers. I responded that I would be happy to participate in any meeting that was arranged for me, on the sole condition that such meeting was to take place with someone with whom a discussion would be of consequence and significance.
Curiously enough, as soon as we set eyes on each other, Sondhi and I realized that we already knew each other. Many years earlier, at the beginning of the ’60s, Professor Sondhi had visited Israel as a guest of the Israeli Foreign Ministry. As a young and junior official in the Asian Department of the ministry at that time, I was assigned to accompany him on his tour and to schedule meetings for him. Among others, Sondhi met with Israel’s prime minister, David Ben Gurion, who gave him an autographed copy of his autobiography. On the day after my arrival in New Delhi I visited with Professor Sondhi and his wife in their home, and they proudly showed me the volume.
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