An equation with Israel?
By Kunwar Khalid Yunus
CONTRARY to general belief, contact between Pakistan and Israel goes back to the years soon after independence. Pakistan is an important member of the OIC. It is also a nuclear power. It also realizes that Israel has a strong lobby in the US and can offer Pakistan an opportunity to play an active role in the Middle East peace process.
Evidence suggests that in 1917 the Muslim League had registered its view through a resolution on the declaration by Lord Balfour regarding the establishment of a Jewish homeland on Palestinian soil. Concern was enunciated on the capture of Jerusalem by British General Allenby. This resolution was adopted by the tenth session of the Muslim League in Calcutta on December 1917.
In October 1937, in his presidential address to the 25th Muslim League session in Lucknow, Mr Jinnah declared that in “consonance with the rest of the Islamic world, the Muslims (will) treat the British as an enemy of Islam if the latter fails to alter its present pro-Jewish lobby in Palestine.”
Coming to the subject of contacts, one Zionist leader, Chaim Weizman, evolved a strategy to isolate the Palestinian question from Indian politics. In 1931, he met Maulana Shaukat Ali. It was the first direct contact between the Indian Muslim and Jewish leaderships. This and other instances of contacts between the Israelis and the pre-and post-partition Muslim leadership are included in a research paper by P.R. Kumaraswamy “Beyond the veil: Israel-Pakistan relations.”
In September 1945, Zafarulla Khan, the future foreign minister of Pakistan, visited Palestine. Before the visit, he met Chaim Weizmann who had advised his links in Jerusalem:
“— See to it that (Zafrulla Khan’s) stay in Palestine, and his contacts with our work, are made as interesting and as agreeable as possible.”
In January 1948, months after partition and before the creation of Israel, Chaim Weizmann wrote to Zafarulla Khan, drawing a parallel between Pakistan and the future Israel.: “Many problems will be common to both of us and it is my earnest hope that it may be possible for us to deal with them together and in cooperation for the good of both of our peoples.”
Other important Pakistani leaders, besides Mr Zafarulla Khan, were sympathetic towards Israel. They also facilitated interaction with the Israeli political leadership, officials and diplomats. Such Pakistani leaders comprised Liaquat Ali Khan, Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan, Ziaul Haq, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto.
The meeting points of Israeli and Pakistan diplomats included Rangoon, Kathmandu, Tokyo, Lagos, Ankara, Tehran, Caracas, Ottawa, Brussels and Rome. On April 7, 1952, in New York, political counsellor Gideon Rafael and Eban (Israel’s permanent representative as well as ambassador in Washington) met Pakistan’s ambassador A.S. Bokhari and discussed pro-Israel statements made by Zafarulla Khan.
Again on January 14, 1953, both Israeli diplomats met Pakistan’s foreign minister in New York and discussed the issue of Israel’s recognition by Pakistan. The policies of the Pakistan government in the mid-fifties were most pro-western. Soon after the ceasefire in Sinai, the Pakistani high commissioner and Israel ambassador M. S. Comay met at a party in Ottawa on December 23, 1956. The Israeli ambassador sent the following dispatch to his country.
“The Pakistan high commissioner... came up to me, shook me by the hand and warmly congratulated me on the wonderful show your splendid little army put up in beating the Egyptian. His only regret was that the British and the French had intervened. Otherwise we might have gone to Cairo.
“He hoped that a way could be found some time of procuring a modus vivendi between Pakistan and Israel and thought that Turkey was in the best position to bring it about...”
Some archival record is available which pictured Mr Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s contact with Israelis in his early political days. In September 1957, Mr Bhutto accompanied a delegation led by then foreign minister Sir Feroz Khan Noon to the UN where he met some Israeli foreign officials.
In March 1958, when Gen Ayub Khan became Pakistan’s president, Mr Bhutto led a delegation to Geneva on a UN conference. There he met and dined with his Israeli counterpart Shabtai Rosenne. Both had met previously. Rosenne recorded the events.
“...Bhutto does not conceal his dislike for the Arabs or how he despises the way they conduct their political affairs. His attitude towards us seems to be that... Israel is a political reality and it would be in Pakistan’s interest to recognize this fact....”
Following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the Israelis started an overt political agenda with Pakistan. Regular meetings between Pakistani and Israeli officials were held and, according to Channel-2 Television, the two sides were almost on the verge of forging diplomatic relations.
In the mid-eighties when it was rumoured that Israel could launch an air attack on Pakistan’s nuclear facilities at Kahuta, Ariel Sharon sent to Islamabad his senior aide Avvraham Tamir who dispelled Islamabad’s fears and even concluded arms deals with the then president Ziaul Haq.
In late 1992, a group of Pakistani businessmen reportedly visited Israel to discuss business opportunities. In an unusual development in 1994, an official of an Israeli publication disclosed that over 300 Pakistanis had visited Israel during 1993. The same year, when India decided to normalize ties with Israel the Pakistani ambassador in Washington, Abida Hussein, caused an uproar when she announced, “If the parties to the (Arab-Israeli) dispute resolve their differences, Pakistan will recognize Israel.”
While visiting Israel in November 1993, the Nepalese agricultural minister Ram Chandra Poudel disclosed that Nepal had indirectly brokered relations between Israel and Pakistan. In February 1996, Pakistan’s then interior minister visited the Philippines. He met the Israeli intelligence community’s top brass during a counter terrorism conference. General Babar requested Israel to help out in dealing with violence in Karachi.
In 1997, a religious party leader Maulana Ajmal Qadri visited Israel. Upon his return he said, “In the larger interest of Palestine, Pakistan should recognize Israel.” In August 1997, the Israeli media reported on a delegation of religious leaders from Pakistan who spent a week in Israel and met Israeli foreign ministry officials.
In September 1997, General Mirza Aslam Beg declared, “Pakistan has no direct differences with Israel... We have no dispute with Israel, therefore we should not hesitate in recognizing Israel.” In the same month, before visiting the US, Nawaz Sharif’s media spokesman Mr Sadiq ul Farooq declared that there was no harm in Pakistan recognizing the Jewish state.
In October 1998, Israeli media reported a meeting between Ezer Weizmann, then Israeli president, and his Pakistani counterpart Mr Rafique Tarar in Ankara. Tarar approached Weizmann and shook hands and said: “I have heard a great deal about you as a man of peace... one day we will meet again.”
Our state and political leadership have a long history of quietly pursuing policies that contradict their public stance. But now, we have come out in the open, perhaps because it is in our national interest. Days after it was created, the Jewish state made a formal request for acceptance. We refused. But now, we should recognize Israel, on our own terms.
The writer is a member of the National Assembly
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