Agricultural university students from Nepal at Tel Aviv airport 2023.
Welcomed by the Israeli ambassador to Nepal
Global Voices
So what is the connection to Nepal? There are currently 4,500 Nepali nationals working as caregivers in Israel, and a total of 265 Nepali students studying in Israel under the 11-month Learn and Earn Programme funded by the Israeli government. Of them, 119 are from Agriculture and Forestry University, 97 from Tribhuvan University and 49 from Sudur Paschim University in Western Nepal, all of them bachelor-level students of agriculture.
I’d not heard of a gap year programme for agricultural university students in Israel, but it made perfect sense. Israel has been a world leader in agricultural research and practice since WW1 ended. So it will not surprise us that 17 students from Sudur Paschim University were working in Kibbutz Alumim in southern Israel, enthusiastically gaining training they may not have had available at home.
But then Hamas let loose thousands of killing machines in Southern Israel on Saturday, and sent dozens of killers into settlements near the Gaza Strip. Hamas killed citizens and visitors by rockets, chopping off heads, taking young people as hostages into Gaza, and shooting others in the back.
Out of the 17 Nepali teens and early 20s in the kibbutz, 10 were massacred by Hamas, four were injured and sadly one is still missing. Only two, who are still under police protection, were left uninjured. Nepal's ambassador in Jerusalem had to inform the devastated parents of the massacre and report it to the Government.
The embassy had to try to identify the students’ body parts located after the massacre. The bodies will taken back to Nepal soon after identification is completed and returned to their parents for funerals and memorials. A coordination meeting formed under the leadership of Foreign Minister N.P Saud is operating at his Ministry to identify all Nepalese nationals in Israel and to make efforts for rescue these nationals if they choose to. Foreign Minster Saud reported it was collaborating with the Israeli government and the embassy in Tel Aviv to find planes go fly home, the Kathmandu Post newspaper reported.
Nepal sends plane to evacuate citizens from war-hit Israel
Kathmandu Post
The Nepalese are rightly devastated. Various political parties in Nepal have asked the government to take diplomatic initiatives to rescue and repatriate Nepalis. Issuing a statement, Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba urged the government to ascertain the exact number of Nepalis in Israel and ensure their safety. The Opposition Party urged friendly nations, international human rights organisations, International Organisation for Migration and International Committee of the Red Cross, to support repatriating Nepalis working in Israel and still in danger of Hamas murders.
One day after the massacre, all Nepali university students in Israel were shifted to secured and secret locations.
24 comments:
What an awful story. I had no idea Nepalese university students were in Israel.T was surprised to hear that there are 100,000 Australians there too.
How terrible this whole story is and thank you for telling about angles that have not yet been revealed here.
Those poor parents and other relatives could never have envisaged such an outcome to an exciting experience for their youngsters.
The whole news was terrible to hear. Yet, there are pro-Palestinian protests in various capitals condoned by police in this country.
Read what Israel's ambassador to Nepal said about the Learn and Earn Programme: The idea is to send young people to Israel for 11 months during which they spend five days a week on the job training in Israeli farms and one day in college for theoretical knowledge. When they come back, they bring earnings and knowledge, but most of all the culture of work.
I'm in constant touch with the returnees. Not all of them are doing agriculture, but these 1,000 are quality farmers. They are doing vegetables, livestock, fish, poultry and fruits. But each one of them is specialising in something. You can’t be a farmer without specialising, to do it on an industrial scale (Nepali Times July 2023).
diane
There are just over 10,000 Australian citizens who live in Israel permanently and another 45,000 Australian family members or tourists travelling to Israel every year. My son and his family have dual citizenship, and as he is a travel agent, coming to Australia and New Zealand every year is an important source of his business.
Yael
I imagine the news services are so overwhelmed with the Hamas brutality, they could not possibly cover every tragic story.
I got all the details from Nepalese newspapers, not Israeli or Australian newspapers. So most people would know very little about these beautiful university students.
roentare
gatherings are allowed in a democracy, to raise money for the victims or to protest the brutality, but the gatherings should be inside and respectful. When I heard the Hamas supporters in Sydney screaming for the Jews to be gassed, the local Jews were terrified that Nazism had returned. How was the neo-Nazi language allowed in Sydney?
Deb
thank you. I didn't know about the Learn and Earn Programme before this weekend, nor did I know about its special relevance to agricultural university students from Nepal. Hopefully Hamas wasn't specifically targeting the Nepalese students; that they were randomly massacred along with anyone else near Gaza. The programme has been very important to Nepal's student body and it would be a tragedy if it had to stop.
jabblog
agreed. I remember from 1966 that going away on the Gap Year Programme was the most exciting year of our lives. I spent the year overseas, with a large group of Australian, New Zealand and South African friends, and largely out of our parents' reach. The learning was great, but the independence was even better :)
But when the parents and grandparents in Nepal kissed the children farewell at the airport, they had no idea there was a major risk looming. Now I wonder if the Learn and Earn Programme will attract many students in the future?
This is another sad story coming out of Israel. This war is horrible, and Hamas are just terrorists who obviously don't even care for the own people's well being. Now we have 2 major conflicts if you add Ukraine into the story. What a sad world. Are we heading towards the next world war? I hope not.
Erika
even before the Hamas massacres, as you say, it seems as if the world was heading to endless wars, either civil or across national borders. Think of 1. Ukraine and Russia, 2. Armenia, Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh, 3. Iran, 4. Yemen, 5. Ethiopia, 6. Democratic Republic of Congo, 7. Haiti, 8. Pakistan and 9. Taiwan.
I might have also included Somalia, Syria, Libya, Central African Republic etc. I despair.
Hello Hels, When those monsters attacked Israel, they were really attacking the entire world, both in principle and via the people of many nations who became the victims of their vicious attacks. What really shocks me is the idiotic support for the attackers, both in cities and in universities, which are supposed to be both intelligent and civilized. Talk about inviting vipers into the nest!
--Jim
How bloody terrible this was a distressing read, I don't get how people can support Hamas but they do for whatever stupid reason they have doing so
Parnassus
I saw supporters of the Hamas murderers in the main streets of cities I would never have expected eg London, New York and Sydney. Their threats were Nazi-derived and their behaviour was dangerous to local Jewish communities, let alone to Israelis. Hopefully there are no Nepalese celebrating Hamas murders, of their own students or of anyone else.
It will never end.
Jo-Anne
Can you imagine the wives of Hamas murderers, knowing their men were going to slaughter civilian men and teens, then rape civilian women and kidnap them into Gaza? Didn't they tell their husbands not to cut the heads off babies and young children? Men may be brutal, but you normally expect women to protect (other peoples') families.
Oh dear me, that is simply appalling. Some dreaful stories coming out at the moment.
Margaret
in one way, the stories about parents and children in their homes being massacred were even worse than police, soldiers and guards being shot. For example 260+ teens died at the Supernova Music Festival after Hamas killers arrived carrying AK-47 assault rifles. The teens were singing, rocking and rolling with with the musicians, and celebrating the holidays; they would not have had enough time to hide from the killers. And in any case, many of the dead bodies had been shot in the back as they tried to run away.
This was the worst civilian massacre in Israeli history. Even the survivors will never recover properly.
For the moment I just can't support all the miseries in the world and my personal too. I don't watch TV anymore it is so horrible what is going on. I get the impression to forward to the past and not back to the future ! I have see all this life, my playground were ruins and my parents went food hunting. All déjà vu and that's horrible. Nobody has learned anything.
Gattina
I understand totally. If it wasn't my family, and my friends' families in Israel running the risk of dying each day, I too would not listen to the news nor scan the newspapers. But I want to hear from my grandson every single day!!
Admittedly I don't wake up early every morning to listen to the news about the women in Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq for the very same reason... it would totally break my heart.
This is a very sad situation but just maybe the untenable situation between Israel's right to exist and the Palestinian need for a civilized way of life and hope for its young people will be addressed . I hope that restraint prevails because if it doesn't and anger and vengeance rules then things can get a lot worse for everyone maybe even the world . The reality is that Israel has been in a situation where this was always going to happen . That doesn't condone or excuse the terrible brutality of Hamas .Israel has a window of opportunity here to use the world wide sympathy it has ,to do something really momentous to change this untenable situation . I hope and pray that they use it because otherwise a lot of little children will be scarred for life and lives blighted by PTSD and tragedy .
mem
Thank you for your thoughtful response. I can breathe at night as long as my son and family, and every other family in Israel, survive and live in safety. My first cousins, all Australian born, tell us each day that they are alive and surviving. However on Joe's side of the family, his brother and their VERY large family are anxious because the grandsons have been recalled up to army duty, even though they have finished their 3 years of normal conscription.
The Nazis and their allies didn't leave many Jews alive until Nov 1945 when the survivors made their way to Australia, Argentina, Brasil etc.. and to Mandatory Israel. I fear these massacres of Jews will happen all over again, in 2023 and on.
I am so sorry for your stress . I feel quite stressed and sad and I dont have any family involved in this horror . Focus on the beauty around you and keep breathing . My thoughts are with you .
mem
Thank you.
We have a sisterhood group who meets at the local coffee shop for mutual support, and I have found that very helpful. The women of my age all have children, grandchildren or cousins in Israel and each of the sisters is empathetic and supportive.
The Chinese-speaking staff ask each of the women how their Israeli family is faring, even if they hadn't known where Israel was on the map :)
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