Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Eswatini
Eswatini's unbroken relations with the Zionist state since 1968, its small Jewish community founded by refugees from Nazism, and an Israeli-linked phone interception system bought for its police
Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, has had diplomatic relations with "Israel" since 1968[1] and was one of the few African states not to break them off in 1973.[2] Its Jewish community of about 30 people has its roots among refugees from Nazi Germany and Holocaust survivors.[3] In 2024 the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) reported that a forestry company linked to the finance minister had paid the US-Israeli firm Verint for a phone-interception system "purportedly on behalf of the Royal Swaziland Police".[4]
Jewish community and religious life
History
The World Jewish Congress (WJC) says the Jewish presence dates back to the Second World War, when German Jewish refugees, and later Holocaust survivors who had been turned away by South Africa, found refuge in the country. With help from the South African Jewish Board of Deputies they rebuilt their lives. Many intermarried, and the WJC says many Emaswati today carry Jewish surnames without practising Judaism.[3]
- Stanley Sapire, a Jew, served as Chief Justice of the Swazi Court of Appeal.[3] The businessman Kal Grant (formerly Goldblatt) was another prominent figure. According to the African Jewish Congress, members of the royal family attended his funeral in 1999.[5]
- Natan Gamedze, a member of the royal line and a grandson of a Swazi king, converted to Judaism in 1991. He is now an Orthodox rabbi and teaches in Safed in "Israel".[3][5]
The community today
The WJC puts the community at about 30, almost all in Mbabane. There is no synagogue, but there are two Jewish cemeteries in Mbabane. Holidays are celebrated in members' homes. The WJC's affiliate is the Eswatini Jewish Community, whose president is Yael Uzan-Tidhar.[3]
- The community's long-time leader, Geoff Ramokgadi, was a local businessman who took the decision in the early 1990s "to affiliate to the Jewish people and Israel". He had ground consecrated for a Jewish cemetery and attended World Jewish Congress and African Jewish Congress meetings.[6] The WJC now refers to him as "the late president" of the community.[3]
- In June 2002 the African Jewish Congress held its ninth annual congress in Eswatini, opened by Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini. The Israeli ambassador to South Africa, Tova Herzl, attended. Members of the community voiced anger at the earlier closure of the Israeli embassy. Ramokgadi said: "Swaziland has kept diplomatic relations with Israel in good times and bad you should have at least left someone here".[7]
- In August 2012 a communal meeting with the Israeli ambassador and Rabbi Moshe Silberhaft of the African Jewish Congress drew about forty people. The WJC says they were "roughly evenly divided" between the Jewish community, including many Israeli businesspeople, and "Christian friends of Israel".[8]
How far is it Zionist? The community is small and works closely with Israeli diplomats. In 2002 Ramokgadi was presented with a Jewish National Fund Golden Book certificate by Rabbi Silberhaft, the Israeli ambassador Tova Herzl and Mervyn Smith on behalf of the African Jewish Congress.[7] At the same congress the African Jewish Congress, to which the community is affiliated, said it wanted to use the new African Union to press for "a more fair-handed approach towards the Middle East position" and to promote the Israeli side of the story.[7]
Chabad
- Main article: Chabad-Lubavitch movement
Powerbase does not yet have a page on Chabad in Eswatini, and no permanent Chabad centre was found there. Eswatini is not among the ten countries with permanent centres under Chabad of Central Africa.[9] The Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States lists no rabbi in Eswatini.[10]
Zionist movement and advocacy
- The African Jewish Congress says a Shalom Club, a Swazi "Israel" friendship group formed by Swazis who had been sponsored to study in "Israel", has stopped functioning.[5]
- Christian pilgrimage has a royal link. The WJC says a sister of King Mswati III is married to a priest who twice a year takes groups of pilgrims on religious tours to "Israel".[8]
Israeli state and commercial ties
Diplomacy and aid
- In 2011 the Israeli foreign ministry gave the date of relations as September 1968 and listed Swaziland as covered from the ministry in Jerusalem.[1] "Israel" kept an embassy in the country until 1999. Its ambassador in South Africa is now accredited to Eswatini.[8]
- In August 2012 the Israeli ambassador, Dov Segev-Steinberg, presented his credentials to King Mswati III, who praised Israeli work in agriculture and eye clinics and accepted an invitation to visit "Israel".[8] In March 2014 the king was reported to be planning an official visit, accompanied by the Israeli ambassador Arthur Lenk, Rabbi Silberhaft and Ramokgadi.[11] He called it off during a general strike by Israeli diplomats.[12]
- On 20 December 2016 Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini met Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. They discussed cooperation in water, education, agriculture, health and security, and the sending of an Israeli delegation to examine cooperation "with emphasis on training in the health sphere".[13]
- The WJC says the Israeli embassy has promoted computer literacy and helped set up the country's first resource centre for early childhood teachers, at the Likusasa Letfu Youth Centre.[3] Eswatini sits in the Israeli foreign ministry's "Africa 2" department.[14]
- In March 2024 a new Eswatini ambassador presented credentials to President Isaac Herzog.[15]
- On 6 May 2026 the foreign minister, Pholile Shakantu, met Ilan Fluss, described as the Israeli ambassador, to discuss strengthening relations. Fluss is policy coordinator for emerging and disruptive technologies at the Israeli foreign ministry and was deputy head of MASHAV from 2009 to 2016.[16] He told the Eswatini Observer that "Israel" wanted to share technology with Eswatini, and that "having friends around the world, who recognise us is significant for us". He said "Israel" was acting in self-defence against Iran.[17]
Surveillance
The ICIJ's Swazi Secrets investigation found that in September 2017 First National Bank sent Eswatini's financial intelligence unit a suspicious activity report about a transfer by its client Usutu Forest Products to Verint, which the ICIJ calls a "U.S.-Israeli cyber firm".[4]
- The bank said the payment was for Verint's PI2 system, known as the Grabber, "purportedly on behalf of the Royal Swaziland Police". The system can intercept, decrypt and record mobile and satellite calls and messages. The bank noted that such a system "would generally be procured through the Government and not private entities".[4]
- Usutu Forest Products is owned by Montigny, a forestry company founded by Neal Rijkenberg, who became finance minister in late 2018. In May 2020 the Anti-Corruption Commission said the matter was still "under investigation" and that Usutu was thought to be a conduit for the police to procure "investigative tools".[4]
- The local paper The Bridge called the device "Israeli" and said the police had been "assisted by the Israeli company".[18] In May 2026 the analyst Melusi Simelane cited the ICIJ findings and the Pegasus controversy in questioning Israeli offers of "technology and innovation" cooperation.[17]
Arms
- The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) records two Israeli Arava transport aircraft delivered in 1979.[19]
- A 2011 SIPRI paper notes that other sources put the Israeli Galil rifle in service in Swaziland.[20]
Trade
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics lists Eswatini separately. In 2025 "Israel" imported goods worth $6.7 million from Eswatini (2024: $7.1 million) and exported goods worth $2.2 million to it (2024: $2.4 million).[21]
Migration and aliyah
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics does not list Eswatini separately in its table of immigrants by country of birth.[22]
Political interference
UN voting
Eswatini did not vote on the General Assembly's endorsement of the New York Declaration on a two-state solution in September 2025.[23] The Eswatini Observer reported that it abstained,[17] but the UN voting record lists it as not voting.
Jeffrey Epstein
- In May 2018 Jeffrey Epstein wrote to the businessman Jide Zeitlin: "i had been in invited to swaziland marriage parade but thought better of it . - -though i did want to go".[24]
- A September 2012 news digest from the office of Terje Rød-Larsen, president of the International Peace Institute, found in Epstein's files reproduced a Washington Institute for Near East Policy paper by Michael Eisenstadt and David Pollock on how the US benefits from its alliance with "Israel". It cited "a U.S.-UN project to circumcise 20 million Africans to prevent AIDS—based on Israeli techniques and inventions used in Swaziland and South Africa".[25]
- A February 2012 digest from the same office reproduced an article noting that Swaziland was one of four African states that recognised Taiwan.[26] Rød-Larsen resigned in 2020 over donations from foundations linked to Epstein and a personal loan from Epstein.[27]
See also
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to South Africa
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Lesotho
- African Jewish Congress
- Verint
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic Missions Abroad: Status of relations mfa.gov.il, archived 5 August 2011.
- ↑ Benyamin Neuberger, Israel's Relations with the Third World (1948–2008) S. Daniel Abraham Center for International and Regional Studies, Tel Aviv University, October 2009.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 World Jewish Congress, Community in eSwatini worldjewishcongress.org, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 The central bank in a tiny African country tried to block a suspicious banking venture. Then the king's allies intervened. International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, 15 April 2024.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 African Jewish Congress, Contemporary Jewish Africa africanjewishcongress.com, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Geoff Ramokgadi's covenant with Judaism SA Jewish Report, 13 December 2018.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 African Jewish Congress, 9th Annual Congress, Swaziland, June 2002 africanjewishcongress.com, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 World Jewish Congress, Israeli and Jewish leaders received by King of Swaziland worldjewishcongress.org, 16 August 2012.
- ↑ Shloimy Galperin, Getting Central Africa's Rabbis Into One Room Isn't Easy Chabad.org, 10 June 2026.
- ↑ Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States, The Rabbis rabbisalliance.org, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Король Свазиленда посетит Израиль с официальным визитом (The King of Swaziland will pay an official visit to Israel) NEWSru.co.il, 4 March 2014.
- ↑ Raphael Ahren, Suppose they gave a strike and nobody came The Times of Israel, 1 April 2014.
- ↑ Ant Katz, Swazi, Israeli PMs meet on expanding relations SA Jewish Report, 10 January 2017.
- ↑ Benjamin Augé, Israel-Africa Relations: What Can We Learn from the Netanyahu Decade? Études de l'Ifri, Ifri, November 2020.
- ↑ Spokesperson of the President's Office, President Herzog receives Diplomatic Credentials of new Ambassadors of Equatorial Guinea, Paraguay, Georgia, Burundi, and Eswatini Diplomacy.co.il, 13 March 2024.
- ↑ Adekunle Owolabi, Eswatini, Israel eye deeper ties Swazi24, 6 May 2026.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Israel Envoy Responds to Fuel Hikes Eswatini Observer, 10 May 2026.
- ↑ Samkelo Ngwenya, Big Brother State: Israel company helped police get sophisticated technology to read your texts and intercept your calls The Bridge, 18 April 2024.
- ↑ Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Arms Transfers Database SIPRI, accessed 20 October 2026.
- ↑ Siemon T. Wezeman, Israeli Arms Transfers to Sub-Saharan Africa SIPRI Background Paper, October 2011.
- ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Foreign Trade Statistics Monthly, Table D1: Trade Countries – Imports and Exports CBS, December 2025 issue (library copy).
- ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Statistical Abstract of Israel 2024, Table 2.55: Immigrants, by period of immigration, country of birth and last country of residence CBS, 2024.
- ↑ United Nations General Assembly, Recorded vote on A/80/L.1/Rev.1: Endorsement of the New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, 12 September 2025 (copy hosted by Al-Quds Al-Arabi).
- ↑ Jeffrey Epstein, email to Jide Zeitlin, "Re: Glencore shares fall on SFO probe concerns", 21 May 2018, DOJ Epstein Files release (Dataset 9), EFTA01051975 (mirror), accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Office of Terje Rød-Larsen, "September 9 update", news digest, 10 September 2012, DOJ Epstein Files release (Dataset 9), EFTA00667175 (mirror), accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Office of Terje Rød-Larsen, "February 19 update", news digest, 20 February 2012, DOJ Epstein Files release (Dataset 9), EFTA00930275 (mirror), accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ International Peace Institute, Statement by the Board of the International Peace Institute: Resignation of President Terje Rød-Larsen, 29 October 2020.