ISLAMABAD (AP) — A Pakistani-American woman who has been criticized in the Islamic country for leading a delegation to Israel defended Monday, saying she traveled to Jerusalem with a small organization of Muslims and non-Muslims to promote interfaith harmony.
Anila Ali, a Pakistani-American citizen living in Washington, D. C. , responded to developing complaints from Pakistanis, some of whom wondered who the scale really was. He said the goal of the scale was to seek the fact and reconcile Muslims and Jews. .
“(The president) of Israel warmly won us over, and the other people of Israel opened their hearts and their homes to us and they knew we were Muslims and they knew we were Pakistanis,” he said, adding that Israelis knew that members of their delegation included Sikhs and Christians, and they were welcome.
Pakistan is among the countries that have diplomatic relations with Israel due to the persistent factor of the Palestinian state, and Pakistan claims that no Pakistani delegation has visited Israel.
Ali said he led a delegation of 15 Pakistani expatriates to Israel earlier this month. He told The Associated Press that neither the Pakistani government nor the United States were on the trip.
Pakistan’s state television took to Twitter on Monday to say it had fired news anchor Ahmed Qureshi, who had visited Israel in a “personal capacity. “The Qureshi component of the delegation that visited Israel with Ali added.
The scale was shown through Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who said he had beaten Pakistani expats. He spoke about the scale at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday and said it “showed me the wonderful change” that occurred after the Abraham Accords.
The Abraham Accords refer to a series of diplomatic pacts negotiated through the Trump administration in 2020 that were normalized between Israel and 4 Arab countries: the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. Israel had already concluded peace agreements with Jordan and Egypt, with whom it fought several wars.
“It was a delight because we have never had an organization of Pakistani leaders in Israel of such magnitude, and all of this grew out of the Abraham Accords, which means that Jews and Muslims can live together in the region,” he said.
Ali told the AP there was no fact in Pakistani opposition leader Imran Khan’s comments in a speech at a rally on Sunday, in which he said a Pakistani delegation had visited Israel. Khan also alleged, without offering evidence, that the existing leadership in Pakistan “will recognize Israel. “
“We do not aim to speak on behalf of the Pakistani government, whether to normalize relations with Israel,” Ali said. “The case is between the Israeli government and Pakistan.
For Israel, while the delegation is small and did not involve Pakistani officials, it marked a vital milestone in its relations with Pakistan, after other Muslim states changed course and agreed to normalize relations with Israel. This is despite Israel’s continued profession of the land. the Palestinians need a long-term state.
For decades, Palestinians have relied on a wall of Arab and Muslim states for their cause, as a means of exerting influence over Israel so that it can make concessions to the Palestinians in exchange for popularity through those Muslim allies.
But after the Abraham Accords, that wall collapsed, perhaps paving the way for other countries to take the same step in the future.
Israel and Pakistan have opened up to others in the past, adding when the country’s foreign ministers met in Istanbul in 2005 after Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Although both countries have participated in joint military trainings sponsored through its non-unusual ally, the United States, adding an earlier one this year. But there has been no major public effort to bring the countries closer together, even though Israel has tightened ties with India in recent years.
Herzog’s office did not consider an official about the meeting, but instead retweeted one of the participants. The scale seemed to go unnoticed in Israel, with few media covering and those who did so late.
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