Pakistani-American Delegation, Including Former Minister, Lands in Israel

The Pakistani delegation, which also includes members of Muslim-American peace groups, is currently in Israel despite a lack of formal diplomatic ties between the two countries.

A delegation of Pakistani-Americans, including a former government minister, arrived in Israel on Tuesday, less than a year after a prominent Pakistani journalist was fired following his visit to Jerusalem and meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

The delegation consists of members of the American Muslim and Multifaith Women’s Empowerment Council (AMMWEC) and Sharaka, an NGO founded in the wake of the Abraham Accords to embed people-to-people normalization between Israel and Muslim-majority states.

Among those visiting is Dr. Nassim Ashraf, the ex-head of the Pakistan Cricket Board and a former Pakistani Minister of State for Human Development.

In a statement reported by the Pakistani news site propakistani.pk, Ashraf said that he was “delighted and honored” to take part in a delegation intended “to promote peace and interfaith dialogue.”

“Such people-to-people contacts,” he said, “are very important to develop understanding and harmony between Abrahamic Faiths to which we belong.” Anila Ali, the president of AMMWEC and a Sharaka board member, told the site that “we must continue our work to build peace on a people-to-people connection to promote the Abraham Accords in Muslim countries,” including between Israelis and Pakistanis.“The aim of the trip is to allow the participants to see and explore Israel for themselves, and to transmit what they learn and experience to audiences in Pakistan to help provide information for the important debate underway on whether Pakistan should join the Abraham Accords,” she said, adding that “due to the tragic flooding in Pakistan, much of the visit will focus on life-saving technologies developed in Israel relating to water and food security and to mitigating climate and environmental disasters.”

Israel and Pakistan have made overtures to each other in the past, most notably when the country’s foreign ministers met in Istanbul in 2005 following Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. But there hasn’t been any major public push to bring the countries closer, even as Israel has tightened ties in recent years with India. Antisemitism and anti-Israel rhetoric is common in Pakistan and every Pakistani passport includes a warning in bold letters that it is valid for all countries except Israel. Just last year, during an interview with CNN, Pakistan’s former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi alleged that Israel had "deep pockets" and "they control the media.”

The trip comes only months after journalist Ahmed Quraishi was fired after participating as part of a previous AMMWEC/Sharaka delegation of mostly Pakistani expatriates living in America that travelled to Israel. Among those who assailed the visit was Pakistan’s ousted Prime Minister Imran Khan, a former cricket star turned Islamist politician who was voted out of office in April. Khan claimed the visit to Jerusalem meant to pave the way for Pakistan’s eventual recognition of Israel — something the delegation denied. The government has also said there are no plans to establish ties with Israel.

At the time, Anila Ali defended the visit, telling The Associated Press that they only sought to reconcile Muslims and Jews.

Ellie Cohanim, the head of the Mukhayriq Initiative, a U.S.-based non-government organization devoted to promoting Muslim-Jewish relations, told the AP that after criticism from Khan, “Quraishi began to receive threats to his life” — even though he was only doing the “job of any good journalist, (which is) to seek information on the ground, and to understand issues first-hand.” Writing in Haaretz following the trip, Hamza Azhar Salam, a Pakistani journalist based in London, reported that Quraishi told him that “all Israelis we met went the extra mile to show us that they have nothing against Muslims, that they respect Muslims, they respect Palestinian Muslims, they respect Muslims from other countries in the world, they would like to make the experience of local Palestinians and visitors from outside who want to visit [Jerusalem’s] Masjid al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock and other holy sites as smooth as possible."

According to i24 News, an unnamed senior Indonesian official is also currently visiting the country. This follows a prior delegation this January which made a rare visit to Israel recently to discuss coronavirus strategies.Israel and Indonesia do not have diplomatic relations, but for years there have been back-channel overtures to establish official ties. Indonesia has refused to normalize relations with Israel until the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, and has been a staunch supporter of the Palestinians.

The United States has been urging Indonesia and Israel to establish full diplomatic relations as part of the Abraham Accords.

https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/2022-09-20/ty-article/.premium/pakistani-american-delegation-including-former-minister-to-visit-israel/00000183-5a58-d1c8-ade3-ffd91a640000