Why some Kuki-Zos in Manipur stand in solidarity with Israel

As the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israeli towns on October 7, a senior leader of Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum or ITLF, a group representing the Kuki-Zo people of Manipur, posted a status message on WhatsApp showing solidarity with Israel.

It read: “Prayers for Israel.”

On October 10, a senior church leader from Kuki Christian Leaders’ Fellowship, an influential church body in Manipur, posted a photo of Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a quote: “If the Arab lay down their arms there would no more war, but if Israel lays down its weapons there would be no more Israel.”

They are not the only ones from the Kuki- Zo community who have extended their solidarity and support to Israel. Similar messages have been posted in several WhatsApp groups, with members of influential civil society groups weighing in online discussions in Israel’s support. This sense is even stronger among the tiny community of Kuki Jews, who number about 5,000.

In May, when ethnic clashes between Kukis and Meiteis broke out, along with churches, synagogues belonging to the Jewish community in Imphal were also attacked.

Many commentators from mainland India have drawn parallels between the five-month civil war in Manipur between the majority Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities and the renewed Israel-Palestine conflict, especially to point out that India’s political leadership and mainstream media have jumped to comment and report on the latter, but not on the ethnic confrontation in their own backyard.

For many leaders of the Kuki-Zos, a minority community embroiled in the ethnic conflict in Manipur, a sense of affinity to Israel is an old one. “One reason is that we are Christian, we follow the Bible. And the Bible is about Israel,” said the ITLF leader who posted a solidarity message for Israel on WhatsApp. He asked not to be identified.

In Mizoram, which is also home to Kuki-Zo people, and Nagaland, a Christian solidarity is behind the backing for Israel in its conflict with Hamas.

‘The lost tribe’

The support for Israel also stems from the widespread belief among the Kuki Jews that they are one of the ten lost tribes of Israel. They claim to be the descendants of the Israelite tribe of Menasseh or Menashe.

“Kukis are believed to be Bnei Menashe or the children of Menashe,” said Lalam Hangshing, the chairman of the Bnei Menashe Council, a body which represents Jewish communities in India. “There is therefore a close emotional bond between Kukis and Israel.”

Hangshing explained that many Kukis have migrated to Israel over the last two decades. “Many of them are conscripts in the IDF,” he said, referring to the national military organisation of Israel, Israel Defence Forces.

“Many people have relatives living in Israel, and so they have expressed solidarity,” explained Janghaolun Haokip, secretary of the state’s apex Kuki body, Kuki Inpi Manipur.

One such immigrant is Isaac Thangjom, project director of Degel Menashe, an Israel-based non-profit organisation which is assisting the Bnei Menashe community.

Thangjom, who is originally from Imphal and now a citizen of Israel, said the support for Israel is unequivocal and resolute. “These are dangerous times to be a Kuki-Zo,” Thangjom told Scroll over the phone from Tel Aviv. “We are facing a state-sponsored annihilation in Manipur, an existential threat no less. Here in Israel, since last Saturday, Hamas has carried out a terror attack, killing the innocent and firing rockets indiscriminately at civilians. There are definite parallels between Hamas and the Meitei militias, Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun.”

Members of the Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun have been accused of targeted attacks against Kuki-Zos in the ethnic clashes that broke out in Manipur in May.

A question of land

Hangshing, a retired bureaucrat and now the general secretary of the Kuki People’s Alliance, a new Kuki-led political party, argued that what is common to the two conflicts is land.

“The Meiteis want our land,” Hangshing said. “Even the Palestinians want to drive the Israelis out saying they are illegally occupying the land. They say that Jews came in 1948 out of nowhere to take the land. But this is the only homeland for Jews, their history goes back 3,000 years,” he added, referring to the Biblical belief about a promised land for Jews.

Hangshing pointed out that on social media Kukis are also branded foreigners. “In fact, the Meiteis have been saying that you belong to Israel and asking us to go back to Israel [even before the Hamas attack].”

Historians, however, point out that there is little evidence that the Kuki-Zo community are descendants of Jews.

“It is a theory propounded by a few and cannot be proved,” a historian from the Kuki-Zo community told Scroll. “The Kukis who believed it converted to Judaism and moved to Israel.”

‘This stand is problematic’

However, several voices within the Kuki-Zo community pointed out the contradictions of such a stand, arguing that Kukis have more in common with the Palestinians when it comes to the power imbalance in their homeland.

Churachandpur resident Jr Amo told Scroll many Kuki-Zos are rooting for Israel without exactly knowing what has been happening in that region.

“There is discussion on the Israel-Palestinian issue both online and offline, but I am having a hard time trying to make my people understand,” Amo said. “While the Meiteis attacked us, trying to cleanse us from this land of ours, we endured hardships of different kinds, we fought back. But when it comes to the Zionist state of Israel, which is doing the same against the Palestinians, we support the Israelites. This stand is very problematic.”

A lawyer from the Kuki Zo-community also pointed out that there is “significant asymmetry of power that favours the Meiteis and the Israelis”. “The Meiteis, who now have control of governance structures, one can argue, is an occupying community like the Jews in Israel,” he alleged. “They have over time tried to do with the Manipur hills what Israel has done to Gaza and the West Bank.”

The lawyer referred to the August report by the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, which, according to him, makes it clear that there “was an attempt to usurp tribal lands by the Manipur government through various legally questionable methods”.