An alleged visit of Pakistanis to Israel on the Green Passport has createdgreat controversy in the country as the political and the religious partiesterm such act against the ideology of Pakistan.
Though the Pakistani link government andForeign Office have categorically rejected this thing in an officialstatement issued here on Sunday but the controversy is still going on indifferent segments of the society.
Mostly the people on social media are busy sharing a picture of theallegedly visiting people of Pakistan to Israel with some exaggerations aswell as rough and tough comments that are far from the base of this.
*NGO Behind Event in Israel and Pakistanilink Participants *
Most prominent Israeli link newspaperlink has disclosed a completereport, with some pictures of the Pakistanilink delegation with its purposes andthe identity of the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who conducted anevent in Israel, published on May 25, 2022.
The newspaper’s report described that a 15 member delegation, led by twocivil society groups, visited Israel in order to promote interfaith harmonyprimarily between Muslims and Jews.
And, this trip was organized by the American Muslim and Multifaith Women’sEmpowerment Council and by Sharaka, an NGO founded in the wake of theAbraham Accords to embed people-to-people normalization between Israel andMuslim-majority states.
American Pakistanis, a British Pakistanilink, prominent Pakistanilink journalist Ahmed Qureshi andPakistani link Jew Fischel BenKhald werealso a part of this delegation.
The newspaper link said every Pakistanilink includes a warning in boldletters that it is valid for all countries except Israel. Nonetheless,Qureshi and BenKhald entered Israel on their Pakistanilink passports, making it the first-evertrip of its kind: a Pakistani linkon a Pakistani link passport, and anindividual whose Pakistani link passportstates that he is a Jew, both travelled to Israel and, no less significant,were able to re-enter Pakistan without hindrance.
This trip clearly signals a change in attitudes about Israel and Jewswithin the Pakistani link state.
Qureshi, who works for Pakistan’s state broadcaster, Pakistan Television(PTV), is considered an expert on the Middle East and holds an excellentreputation within powerful civilian and military quarters in Pakistan,reflected in the fact that the previous government appointed him to host ashow on PTV and he was one of the commentators in Pakistan Day’s militaryparade on 23rd March 2022.
The reporter of the newspaper link claimedthat Pakistani link journalist AhmedQureshi told him, “All Israelis we met went the extra mile to show us thatthey have nothing against Muslims, that they respect Muslims, they respectPalestinian Muslims, they respect Muslims from other countries in theworld, they would like to make the experience of local Palestinians andvisitors from outside who want to visit [Jerusalem’s] Masjid al-Aqsa andthe Dome of the Rock and other holy sites as smooth as possible.”
Qureshi also noted how the Chief Rabbis of Israel have consistentlyforbidden Jews to enter the Haram al-Sharif, which surrounds Masjid al-Aqsaand the Dome of the Rock, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, a positionreiterated by prominent rabbis since the Abraham Accords were signed.
Such testimonials by a Muslim journalist regarding Israelilink hospitality greatly influence theperception of Israel within Pakistan, since the number of Pakistanis whohave ever had an interaction with any Israelilink or any Jew is infinitesimally small.
Anila Ali, who is the founder of the American Muslim and Multifaith WomenEmpowerment Council and was leading the delegation, told the newspaper’sscriber that both Islamophobia and antisemitism needed to be combated, andMuslims could learn from Jews how to change hateful attitudes. Thedelegation also made a visit to Yad Vashem, Israel’s national Holocaustmemorial center, to show solidarity with its victims.
The visit to Yad Vashem is significant because a large number of people inPakistan engage in Holocaust denial and/or downplay the unimaginableatrocities which took place.
She told him about her group’s meeting with Israelilink President Isaac Herzog. “At thebeginning, I thought the president would only give us five minutes, butinstead he chose to have a long conversation with us, I presented myfather’s book on [the “Father of Pakistan,” Mohammed Ali] Jinnah and thepresident said that he would find time to read it,” Anila Ali told me.
Anila also stated that the Israelilinksaid that Israel would be open to diplomatic ties with all Muslimcountries. Such trips featuring interactions between Pakistanis andIsraelis are extremely rare, but not entirely unprecedented.
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In 2015, Israeli link lecturer RamziSuleiman, who taught at the University of Haifa’s psychology department,visited Pakistan in a conference sponsored by the University of Punjab,reflecting quiet links between Pakistanilink and Israelilink.
According to Anila Ali, Israeli link academicshave shown an interest in collaborating with Pakistanilink academics, particularly in thefield of agri-tech. The interest is not one-sided: Two Pakistanilink academics issued a striking call inHaaretz for Pakistan, which will likely be most water-stressed country inits region by 2040, to cooperate urgently with Israel on issues of waterscarcity, recycling and agriculture to save Pakistanilink lives.
She also mentioned that Fiverr, an Israelilink company, boasted thousands ofPakistani link freelancers who weremaking billions of rupees every year via the Israelilink platform, suggesting that increasedcooperation between the two countries could be mutually beneficial.
Even in the realm of sports, we have witnessed the first flowering ofPakistani link and Israelilink cooperation and partnership. In 2002,Pakistani link Tennis star Aisam ul Haqteamed up with Israeli link player AmirHadad during the Wimbledon and U.S. Open tournaments.
Indeed, people-to-people connections between Pakistanis and Israelis haveexisted for a long time, with or without official sanction or backing, andno amount of overheated political rhetoric can roll that back.
Few in Pakistan remember that there was once a thriving Jewish community ofthousands, centered around Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta. Jews wholeft Pakistan still harbor nostalgia for their erstwhile home. EmmanuelMatat, a Jew born in Karachi who left Pakistan around three decades ago forIsrael, recalls how he misses Pakistan’s signature biryani dish – and hopesto make a return visit.
Pakistan and Israel have participated in joint military exercises atvarious times. Pakistan’s military establishment, which is considered to bethe dominant player in Pakistan’s foreign relations, is itself opening upto the idea of ties with Israel.
However, senior current and former government officials are wary of apublic debate surrounding the contention that it is the powerful militarywhich is pushing for ties with Israel.
The Israeli link newspaperlink report said Pakistan’s former HumanRights Minister, Shireen Mazari, has conducted an intense campaign onTwitter slamming Qureshi’s participation in the trip to Israel, suggestingthat the Pakistani link militaryendorsed the visit, and accusing Pakistan’s recently installed governmentof pushing for ties, in contrast, she claims, to the solid opposition tosuch normalization voiced by former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
These noisy accusations may be an attempt to deflect the conversation awayfrom credible reports that not only did an Israelilink business plane make a short trip toIslamabad in 2018, during Khan’s tenure as premier, and that last year, asenior Khan administration official travelled to Israel for talks withsenior Israeli link leaders.
According to a report in Israel Hayom, Zulfi Bukhari, a close aide of thenPrime Minister Imran Khan, traveled to Israel on his British passport tomeet then-Mossad chief Yossi Cohen.
Whilst Bukhari denied the reports, other, credible sources insisted that hehad delivered a message from Pakistan to Israel.
In order to circumvent Khan’s government’s attempts to engage with Israel,his party’s leaders and propagandists are blaming the militaryestablishment for calling for ties with Israel. Qureshi is adamant thatImran Khan was ready to establish relations with Israel and used his familyrelations as a conduit, a reference to Imran’s Khan’s ex-wife JemimaGoldsmith’s family.
Both Ben and Zac Goldsmith have openly come out in support of Imran Khansince his ouster, which led to the British government distancing itselffrom what it called their interference in Pakistanilink politics.
As far as Pakistan is concerned, Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa hasdeclared a shift in Pakistan’s foreign policy from geopolitics togeoeconomics. That suggests that Pakistan’s geopolitical differences withIsrael could be sacrificed in favor of the economic benefits which may beachieved from formal ties with Israel in industries such as agriculture,tech, cybersecurity and the freelancing market.
The fact that a Pakistani link journalistworking for the state broadcaster could make this trip reflects that thePakistani link is increasingly opento normalization. It raises the intriguing possibility of a futurereciprocal delegation of Israelis visiting Pakistan, the Israelilink newspaper’s report said.