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ABSTRACT
This paper explores the involvement of the Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency, in producing propaganda materials on behalf of the Southern Sudanese rebel group Anya-Nya, between 1969 and 1971. From 1961, Southern Sudanese politicians appealed for Israeli assistance in their struggle against the Sudanese government. Israelis saw great potential for anti-Arab propaganda in the Southern cause, but did not extend any significant support to the rebels until 1969. When they eventually did, they also embarked on a secret propaganda campaign on behalf of the Anya-Nya, seeking to promote the Southern struggle globally in order to delegitimize Arab nations and their Soviet supporters and draw attention away from anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian propaganda in the aftermath of the Six-Day War of 1967. Unlike earlier Southern Sudanese publications, the Israeli materials made extensive use of photographs and projected a new image of the Southern Sudanese leadership and its relationship with civilians. The publications, the paper argues, advanced both Israeli and Southern Sudanese interests, and reflected both Southern Sudanese and Israeli notions of nation-building.
Acknowledgements
This article is based on a dissertation I submitted as part of an MSc in African Studies at the University of Oxford. Sebabatso Manoeli gave invaluable feedback and guidance throughout the research process, and I benefitted greatly from discussions with Miles Larmer and Chava Brownfield-Stein. Earlier versions of the paper were presented at the Horn of Africa Seminar Series (Oxford) and the Centre for Contemporary African History Seminar Series (Durham). Two anonymous reviewers provided constructive suggestions. I am grateful to David Ben-Uziel and Yossi Alpher, who shared with me their memories, thoughts, and materials.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. HaMossad (The Institute, in Hebrew) is short for The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations.
2. Oduho and Deng, The Problem; Beshir, The Southern Sudan: Background; Albino, A Southern Viewpoint; Beshir, From Conflict to Peace.
3. Poggo, The First; Rolandsen, “A False Start”; Rolandsen, “The Making”; Rolandsen and Leonardi, “Discourses of Violence”; Willis, “Representing.”
4. The most detailed account has been Poggo’s (The First, 155–61).
5. Thompson, “Visualising.”
6. Rolandsen, “A False Start”; Poggo, The First, 113–19; Johnson, The Root Causes.
7. Rolandsen, “The Making”; Poggo, The First, 63–71.
8. Willis, “Representing”; Poggo, The First.
9. “Sudan Uses Force on South,” The Observer, February 24, 1963.
10. Istituto Artigianelli, The Black Book, 20.
11. New Day was published by the Anglican Church in Uganda.
12. The first reports include: Jean-Fracois Chauvel, “Sudan: Arabes et Noirs sont aux prises,” Le Figaro, March 24, 1966, available in Sudan Archive Durham, UK (SAD) 949/8/28-38; Anthony Carthew, “A Story to Shock the World,” Daily Mail, January 31–February 2, 1966 (three parts series), available in Archivo Comboniani Roma (ACR) A/92/5/2-6.
13. For example, Peter Younghusband, “Race War Threat of a New Biafra,” Daily Mail, March 2, 1970, available in SAD 814/8/2.
14. Rolandsen, “The Making,” 216.
15. Oduho and Deng, The Problem. See also Willis, “Representing.”
16. SA(CD)NU, “Open Letter to the Prime Minister of Uganda, M. Obote,” The Voice of Southern Sudan 1, no. 1 (1963).
17. Kamanu, “Secession”.
18. Betts, Decolonization, 42.
19. The Kenya African National Union and the Tanganyika African National Union.
20. See also Willis, “Representing,” 292–93.
21. Voice of Southern Sudan 1, no. 1.
22. Betts, Decolonization, 40.
23. Kunstmann, “The Politics,” 534.
24. Malwal, From One, 105; Willis, “Representing,” 295.
25. Israel State Archives (ISA) 3779/14, William Deng to David Ben-Gurion, 22 May 1961.
26. Levey, “Israel’s Strategy in Africa, 1961–67.”
27. ISA-3779/14, Ephraim Eylon (Foreign Ministry, Department for Political-Economic Planning) to Rahamim Timor (Middle East Department), 9 June 1961. Eylon uses the Hebrew word Hasbara, which literally means “explanation” rather than “propaganda.” Israelis use the word Hasbara to describe their efforts to convince foreign audiences in the rightfulness of the Israeli position, particularly in the context of the Israeli-Arab conflict. Hasbara is therefore perceived (by Israelis) as a legitimate activity, while “propaganda” as misleading and dishonest, particularly when practiced by Israel’s enemies. All translations from Hebrew are mine.
28. ISA-3779/14, Links with Southern Sudan (unsigned memorandum), [July 1963?].
29. Ibid.
30. Ibid; ISA-3424/43, Nairobi to Africa Department, 2 January 1963; ISA-3424/43, Israel Mission to the United Nations (New York) to Africa Department, 1 May 1963.
31. ISA-3779/14, Moshe Leshem (Israeli embassy in Leopoldville) to Africa Department, 10 March 1962.
32. ISA-3779/14, Rafael Ruppin to Africa Department and Middle East Department, 4 May 1962.
33. ISA-3779/14, Africa Department to Rafael Ruppin, 6 June 1962.
34. ISA-3779/14, Africa Department to the Israeli embassy in Dar es Salaam, 7 January 1962. See also Ruppin, Assignment – Tanganyika, 127–30.
35. ISA-3779/14, Africa Department to the Israeli Embassy in Dar es Salaam, 7 January 1962.
36. ISA-3571/9, letters by the Foreign Ministry’s Africa Department to the Israeli embassies in Bangui, Leopoldville, Nairobi, Addis Ababa, Dar es Salaam and Kampala, 28 June 1965.
37. Shlaim, The Iron Wall, 291–301.
38. Interview, Alpher, Ramat-Hasharon, 14 March 2017.
39. Lagu, Sudan: Odyssey, 201; Alpher, Periphery, 35.
40. See also Aalen, “Ethiopian State Support.”
41. Interview, Alpher, Ramat-Hasharon, 14 March 2017.
42. ISA-4218/32, Africa Department to Israel Mission to the United Nations (New York), 24 April 1968.
43. Shlaim, The Iron Wall, 232–67.
44. Peters, Israel and Africa, 21–41.
45. ISA-4218/34, Middle East and the Eastern Mediterranean Basin Department (MEEMBD) to the Israeli embassy in London, 18 April 1969. See similar statements in ISA-4218/34, MEEMBD to the Israeli embassy in Rome, 18 April 1969; ISA-4218/34, MEEMBD to the Israeli consul in Chicago, 18 May 1969.
46. ACR A/90/12/10, Joseph Lagu to the Israeli embassy in Kampala, September 12, 1967.
47. Lagu, Sudan: Odyssey, 204–207; Ben-Uziel, A Mossad; Magaya, The Anyanya, 66–68.
48. Ben-Uziel, A Mossad. See also Meir, My Life, 263–90.
49. Interview, Alpher, Ramat-Hasharon, 14 March 2017.
50. Ben-Uziel, A Mossad.
51. Magaya, The Anyanya, 70–71.
52. ISA-4218/34, Israeli embassy in Rome to MEEMBD, 11 June 1969. See also ISA-4218/34, MEEMBD to Israeli consul in Milan, 8 July 1969.
53. ISA-4218/34, Israeli embassy in Rome to MEEMBD, 11 June 1969. The images are not attached to these communications in the archive and it is unclear whether the Israelis made any use of them later in their publications.
54. ISA-4218/35, Arye Oded (MEEMBD) to Moshe Alon (Ambassador, Brussels), 15 August 1969.
55. ISA-4218/35, Shlomo Hillel (Foreign Ministry, Deputy Director) to Moshe Alon (Ambassador, Brussels), 13 October 1969.
56. Interview with David Ben-Uziel, Netanya, 17 March 2017.
57. These albums were not available to me. Ben-Uziel retained copies of some of the images, which I was able to consult. Some of these images are included in his book (A Mossad).
58. In early 1972 a booklet titled Anya-Nya: What We Fight For was also published (ACR, 674/5/1). It consists of a text written by Lagu. Originally intended for dissemination inside Sudan, it was released weeks before the end of the war and it remains unclear how and whether at all it was used. Another leaflet, Resistance: The Story of Southern Sudan, was also published, in both French (ACR, A/86/8) and English (available in Oxford’s Bodleian Library, UK). It is likely that it was published with Israeli assistance, as its French version includes images taken by Ben-Uziel, but I was unable to confirm this.
59. Interview, Alpher, Ramat-Hasharon, 14 March 2017. See also Alpher, Periphery, 33–37.
60. Interview, Ben-Uziel, Netanya, 17 March 2017.
61. Interview, Alpher, Ramat-Hasharon, 14 March 2017. Foreign Ministry communications from 1969 indicate that these contacts existed but do not sufficiently illuminate their nature or how they evolved. See, for example: ISA-4218/35, Yehuda Tegar (Israeli embassy, London) to MEEMBD, 29 October 1969; ISA-4218/35, Yael Vered (MEEMBD) to Yehuda Tegar (Israeli embassy, London), 19 November 1969; ISA-4218-34, Dominic Mohamed to the Israeli Consulate General in Chicago, 5 April 1969.
62. SSRM, Any-Nya 5 (1971), 1, available in ACR A/86/30/5.
63. “A New Newspaper: Anya-Nya Monthly,” Grass Curtain 2, no. 1, 8.
64. Interview, Alpher, Ramat-Hasharon, 14 March 2017.
65. Brownfield-Stein, Photographs of IDF Soldiers, 39–50. Borrowing from Brownfield-Stein, these images arguably represent the construction of what Michel Foucault called “docile bodies”: bodies that are being made soldiers. Foucault, Discipline and Punishment, 135–56.
66. Rolandsen and Daly, A History, 87.
67. “Sudan: Has the Scorpion Lost its Sting?,” Time, September 5, 1969. Available in SAD 949/10/31.
68. Anthony Carthew, “A Story to Shock the World,” Daily Mail, February 1, 1966, available in ACR A/92/5/5. See also: L. Fellows, “The Unknown War in the Sudan,” New York Times, September 22, 1968.
69. Thompson, “Visualising,” 30.
70. Leonardi, Dealing with Government, 147.
71. Ibid., 166–71.
72. See, for example, Voice of the Nile Republic (News Series) 13, 1.
73. Should be “Didinga.”
74. SSRM, The Anya-Nya Struggle: Background and Objectives, [1971?]. Available in Oxford’s Bodleian Library, UK.
75. See, for example: Douglas H. Johnson, private collection (DHJ), National Field Day 4, 1969, 3–5; Voice of Nile Republic (New Series) 8, 1–2; ACR A/90/14/11, E. Tapeng Lodongi, Declaration to the Anyanya Armed Forces, [July 11, 1969?].
76. See, for example: DHJ, NPG, Statement on the Balgo-Bindi Convention, 30 March 1969.
77. Lagu, Sudan: Odyssey, 196, Poggo, The First, 139.
78. ACR A/90/12/10, Joseph Lagu to the Israeli embassy in Kampala, September 12, 1967.
79. Poggo, The First, 124–25.
80. Ibid., 127, 141–42; Beshir, From Conflict to Peace, 63–65.
81. Ben-Uziel, A Mossad.
82. Interview, Ben-Uziel, Netanya, 14 March 2017.
83. Ibid. See also Ben-Uziel, A Mossad; Poggo, The First, 127–29.
84. Gutteridge, Military institutions, 52; Silverburg, Israeli Military. Civil-military relations in Israeli society have been the subject of deep analyses and debates. See Sheffer and Barak, Militarism and Israeli Society.
85. Jacob, “Israel’s Military,” 169.
86. Ibid., 166.
87. In Hebrew, Nahal stands for Fighting Pioneer Youth, and Gadna for Youth Battalions. See Silverburg, Israeli Military, Bar-Yosef, A Villa, 123–84.
88. Silverburg, Israeli Military.
89. Quoted at Bar-Yosef, A Villa, 155.
90. Ibid. See also Decalo, Israel and Africa, 74–78.
91. Ben-Uziel, A Mossad.
92. Ibid; Poggo, The First, 160; Levey, “Israel’s Exit from Africa, 1973,” 207.
93. Poggo, The First, 169–92.