Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Lesotho
Lesotho's relations with the Zionist state, Israeli armoured vehicles, its tiny Jewish community, and the Nikuv bribery case over its passport contract
Lesotho is one of the few African states that, according to the World Jewish Congress and others, did not break off relations with "Israel" after the 1973 war.[1][2] It has bought Israeli armoured vehicles,[3] and in 2016 the Israeli company Nikuv, also known as NIP Global, was convicted in Tel Aviv of bribing a senior Lesotho official to win a $30 million identity and passport contract.[4]
Jewish community and religious life
History
The World Jewish Congress (WJC) traces a Jewish presence in Lesotho, then Basutoland, to the war of the 1860s, when the German Jewish immigrant Moritz Leviseur fought with the Orange Free State forces invading the country. It says a small flow of Jewish immigrants from Europe arrived before the Second World War.[1]
The community today
The WJC says only "a handful of about six Jews" belong to the Lesotho Jewish Community, which is affiliated to it. Jewish life is concentrated in Maseru. The community is also affiliated to the African Jewish Congress in South Africa.[1] The African Jewish Congress says Lesotho "has also never had any Jewish presence to speak of".[5]
How far is it Zionist? The community is too small to have institutions of its own. It is represented abroad through the WJC and the African Jewish Congress.[1] In 2002 the African Jewish Congress 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.[6]
Chabad
- Main article: Chabad-Lubavitch movement
Powerbase does not yet have a page on Chabad in Lesotho, and no permanent Chabad centre was found there. Lesotho is not among the ten countries with permanent centres under Chabad of Central Africa.[7] The Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States lists no rabbi in Lesotho.[8]
Zionist movement and advocacy
No organised Zionist movement was found in Lesotho.
Israeli state and commercial ties
Diplomacy and aid
- "Israel" has no embassy in Lesotho. Its ambassador in South Africa is also accredited there.[1]
- Accounts differ on whether relations were ever broken. The WJC says Lesotho, Malawi and Swaziland were the only sub-Saharan countries not to cut ties after the Yom Kippur War,[1] and the Israeli political scientist Benyamin Neuberger and Ifri also list Lesotho among the states whose relations stayed intact.[2][9] But in 2011 the Israeli foreign ministry gave the status of relations as "Renewal" in August 1986.[10]
- In August 2016 Lesotho's new non-resident ambassador, Lineo Irene Molisa-Mabusela, presented her credentials to President Reuven Rivlin, who asked Lesotho to help "Israel" regain observer status at the African Union.[11]
- In 2017 the Israeli ambassador, Arthur Lenk, told the Lesotho Times that ties dated back to independence and that many Basotho had trained on MASHAV programmes. He said political instability had kept Lesotho from benefiting from Israeli aid, and that he hoped to "re-energise our cooperation in Mashav" with the new government.[12]
Nikuv bribery case
In 2012 the Israeli company Nikuv International Projects, also known as NIP Global, signed a $30 million deal with the government of Lesotho for identity cards, population registration and border control.[4] The Lesotho Times says the contract, worth M300 million, covered the border-control system, electronic passports, birth and death certificates and national identity documents, and was awarded without an open public tender.[13]
- The Times of Israel reports that the company paid a local mediator, Motsotuoa Makoa, $500,000, "with a significant amount of that sum intended for" Retšelisitsoe Khetsi, the director general of Lesotho's interior ministry.[4]
- In December 2016 the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court convicted the company under a plea deal and fined it NIS 4.5 million. It was the first time an Israeli company had been convicted of bribing a foreign official.[4][13]
- The interior minister, Joang Molapo, had cancelled the contract over what he called "exorbitant" fees. In 2014 he told a Lesotho court that the firm's officials had also tried to bribe him.[4] The Lesotho Times says Nikuv escaped prosecution in Lesotho by agreeing that its staff would become witnesses against Khetsi, who faced bribery and corruption charges in the High Court.[13]
Arms
- The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) records ten Israeli RBY-1 armoured personnel carriers, ordered in 1976 and delivered in 1977, and six RAM Mk-3 armoured reconnaissance vehicles delivered in 2006.[3]
- A 2011 SIPRI paper notes that other sources put the Israeli Galil rifle in service in Lesotho.[14]
Trade
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics does not list Lesotho separately in its main table of trade by country. Lesotho falls under "Other Countries".[15]
Migration and aliyah
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics does not list Lesotho separately in its table of immigrants by country of birth.[16]
Political interference
UN voting
- In 2018 Lesotho was one of only seven African states to vote for the US-backed General Assembly resolution condemning Hamas.[9]
- In September 2025 it voted for the General Assembly's endorsement of the New York Declaration on a two-state solution.[17]
Jeffrey Epstein
No correspondence between Jeffrey Epstein and anyone in Lesotho was found. The country appears in the released Epstein files only in passing, for example in news digests compiled by the office of Terje Rød-Larsen, the president of the International Peace Institute. One, from September 2012, reproduced a Foreign Policy article noting Lesotho's apparel exports.[18] Another, from November 2012, quoted a passage on the fight against HIV/AIDS in Lesotho.[19] Rød-Larsen resigned in 2020 over donations from foundations linked to Epstein and a personal loan from Epstein.[20]
See also
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to South Africa
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Eswatini
- African Jewish Congress
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 World Jewish Congress, Community in Lesotho worldjewishcongress.org, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 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 Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Arms Transfers Database SIPRI, accessed 20 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 In first, Israeli company convicted of bribing foreign official The Times of Israel, 15 December 2016.
- ↑ African Jewish Congress, Contemporary Jewish Africa africanjewishcongress.com, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ African Jewish Congress, 9th Annual Congress, Swaziland, June 2002 africanjewishcongress.com, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Benjamin Augé, Israel-Africa Relations: What Can We Learn from the Netanyahu Decade? Études de l'Ifri, Ifri, November 2020.
- ↑ Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic Missions Abroad: Status of relations mfa.gov.il, archived 5 August 2011.
- ↑ Ant Katz, Lesotho, Togo want closer relations with Israel SA Jewish Report, 10 August 2016.
- ↑ Herbert Moyo, Israel calls for stability in Lesotho Lesotho Times, 30 June 2017.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 DCEO goes after Nikuv Lesotho Times, 23 December 2016.
- ↑ 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).
- ↑ Office of Terje Rød-Larsen, "September 1 update", news digest, 4 September 2012, DOJ Epstein Files release (Dataset 9), EFTA00711946 (mirror), accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Office of Terje Rød-Larsen, "November 7 update", news digest, 7 November 2012, DOJ Epstein Files release (Dataset 9), EFTA00700211 (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.