The food items allegedly sent to Israel from Pakistan must have been by now fully digested, and Israelis must have relished their taste. But, for reasons supposed to be both political and opinionated, this one-container export, sent via the United Arab Emirates, has caused a firestorm against the government.
How come Pakistan is trading with Israel with which it has no diplomatic relationship, as the entity is believed to be a bone-crusher of Palestinians? The exported material is of Pakistan-origin, its shipper Fishel ben Khalid is a proud Pakistani and is proponent of trade ties between the two countries and visits Israel on Pakistani passport, but the government is out on the street crying it has nothing to do with this venture.
Since any move or gesture suggesting Pakistan wants to break the ice by establishing working relationship with the Zionist state is considered treasonous his action has been disowned by both the ministries of foreign affairs and commerce.
As a matter of official policy, Pakistan endorses the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has maintained its long-standing position of non-recognition of Israel until an independent Palestine state is established within pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Till not very far in the past, minus a very few exceptions, that was also the stance of the Muslim world. But no more; of late quite a few Muslim states have accorded diplomatic recognition to Israel and set about undertaking joint economic cooperation.
Will Pakistan also follow in the footsteps of other Muslim states and recognize Israel? Given the stern rejection of Fishel ben Khalid’s export to Israel as officially legal the answer is a big no – at least for the present, as was case with other members of OIC (Organisation of Islamic Conference), who have now struck deals with Israel and accorded it diplomatic recognition.
But if the history of Pakistan’s worldview of Israel is any indicator, the outright rejection of Fishel ben Khalid’s action is not the first of its kind. But even recognition of Israel is not on the cards there have been instances that the two have been in contact, both directly and indirectly.
For Pakistan, this secrecy enabled its rulers to maintain regular contacts with Israel even while maintaining public opposition to the Jewish state. The Quaid-i-Azam and Allama Iqbal were opposed to the return of Jews to Palestine.
Addressing a mass meeting in the then Bombay in 1945, the Quaid said: ‘’The Muslims of India would not remain as mere spectators. They would help Arabs in Palestine by all possible means’’. But after Partition Pakistan maintained a calm, statesmanlike demeanor in times of highly emotional international crises such as the 1956 Suez Crisis and the conflict between Israel and the Arab countries in June 1967.
Although the stated formal position is pro-Arab, Pakistani leaders have been adopting a less rigid, and pragmatic policy vis-à-vis Israel. Pakistan’s first foreign minister, Sir Zafarulla Khan, on his return from a visit to Palestine wrote to a Jewish leader: ‘’The problem of Palestine is much more complicated than I had imagined, but let us hope that a just and equitable solution may soon be discovered’’, and in his talks at Damascus indicated that partition, which he had vehemently opposed, was the only solution for Palestine.
He even advised the Arabs to allow that partition, as Israel is ‘’a limb in the body of the Middle East’’. But Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who hosted the second Islamic Summit in 1974, is on record having said that ‘’any agreement, any protocol, any understanding that postulates the continuance of Israeli occupation of Holy City or the transfer of the City to any non-Muslim or no-Arab sovereignty, will not be worth the paper it is written on’’.
However, his nemesis General Ziaul Haq is on record having said, ‘’Pakistan is like Israel, an ideological state. Take out the Judaism from Israel and it will fall like a house of cards. Take Islam out of Pakistan and make it a secular state, it would collapse’’.
During the Afghan war, there were media reports that the chief of Pakistan’s most trusted intelligence service held a top secret meeting with a senior Mossad official in Vienna.
In 2005, President General Musharraf’s foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri had a breakfast meeting with his Israel counterpart in Istanbul.
On the private level there have been visits of Pakistani delegations to Israel, as was that of Maulana Tahirul Qadri in the past and now of Fishel ben Khalid.
In both the cases the Foreign Office had stoutly denied government blessing. However, PTI’s (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s) minister for Human Rights, Shireen Mazari, had accepted that the bar for visiting Israel on Pakistan passports was waived for visits to Israel by Pakistan nationals belonging to the Jewish faith. But certainly not for trading. But the times have changed; there are new ground realities, that Pakistan should not pass over.
If the Arabs - the Palestinians are Arabs – can cosy up to Israel, an option they rightly think can help the two-state solution, why not Pakistan? Let us think over it realistically and pragmatically.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023