Why doesn’t Pakistan recognize Israel?

Islamic Republic of Pakistan does not recognize the State of Israel and one can witness this stance on Pakistani passports, which says: “This passport is valid for all countries in the world except Israel.”

However, Pakistan’s true friend Turkey was the first Muslim majority country to recognize Israel as a country. Turkey recognized Israel on March 29, 1949.

Earlier in September 2019, there were rumours that Pakistan was preparing to recognize Israel, however, then DG ISPR and FO Spokesperson made it clear that there was no move underway to recognize Israel. FO Spokesperson Muhammad Faisal said, “Such activities are part of baseless propaganda, there is no change in policy. Our policy of non-recognition of Israel remains unchanged.”

Now the question arises as to why Pakistan doesn’t recognize Israel? What are the causes? 

State of Israel

In 1947, The United Nations approved a plan to partition Palestine into a Jewish and Arab state, but Arabs rejected it, declaring that the partition of Palestine was actually an occupation of Jerusalem. Then in 1948, Israel was officially declared as an independent state and David Ben-Gurion – Head of the Jewish Agency – became the prime minister.

Soon after the declaration, five Arab nations – Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon – invaded the region, which is known as the Arab-Israel war. Civil war broke out throughout Israel, but a cease-fire agreement was reached in 1949.

Israel has an interesting geography; the country is located in Levant area of Fertile Crescent region and surrounded by Islamic countries. Israel is bounded by Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan and West Bank to the east, and Egypt and Gaza Strip to southwest.

The Jewish population worldwide is about 14.6 million, which the current Israeli authorities intend to bring into occupied Palestine and Israel.

Reasons for not recognizing Israel

There is no difference between the struggle for independence of occupied Kashmir and the liberation of occupied Palestine. The repeated assaults on Gaza and the West Bank have created a humanitarian disaster for the people living there, Pakistan stands in solidarity with these people. This is the main reason behind not recognizing Israel as a state.

Earlier on March 3, 2020, Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser said that Pakistan will never have relations with Israel unless an independent Palestine state is created with Jerusalem as its capital.

Another reason behind this policy is that Pakistan was the result of a democratic struggle, while Israel was created unfairly and dishonesty leaving the locals at a disadvantage. It is the unanimous statement of all Muslim countries, including Pakistan, that Israel has illegally occupied Palestine.

In 1947, Israel’s founder, David Ben Gurion sent a telegram to Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah in an attempt to establish diplomatic relations with Pakistan. The telegram was ignored and to date remains unanswered.

On the basis of these reasons, Pakistan can never recognize Israel. Some Islamic countries have accepted Israel because of government policies and diplomatic compulsions. However, there is still a lot of anger among the people of Pakistan in this regard.