Pakistan should recognise Israel
It is a shock for me, as a Pakistani to realise that more than 60 years on, even though Pakistan acknowledges Israel’s presence on the world map, it does not have relations with it of any sort (publically that is). No matter how much we hate it, or deny it, Israel exists as a nation state formed after the British-Palestine with Gaza and West Bank as being occupied.
Egypt made peace after Sinai was returned to it, and Jordan unconditionally accepted peace without negotiating on West Bank after its capture. Now, many Muslim men and women which includes Pakistanis get turned away from Israel on simple indication that they plan to visit West Bank to visit sites of the Prophets (peace be upon them), or even Jerusalem to pray in the holy mosques.
We, Pakistani have not been able to pay the same respect to Al-Aqsa as we do to the other two mosques in Makkah and Madina. In fact, young Pakistani’s cannot travel to Saudi Arabia unless they have an elderly, or a woman accompanying the group. On top of that, they need the booking to be made via a travel agent rather than book directly and save on the hefty commission the travel agents charge.
To travel to Israel, one simply needs to have a passport valid beyond 6 months, a hotel and return flight booking (and in my case, being a Pakistani obtain a visa…somehow). Visa’s offered can be paper based with stamps on a separate paper, leaving no trace of having visited Israel, or in our case, the third holiest site in Islam – Al Aqsa, as it says in the hadith:
Visiting al-Masjid al-Aqsa and praying there is Sunnah when it is possible to do so, because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “No journeys should be made specifically to visit any mosque except three: al-Masjid al-Haraam [in Makkah], this mosque of mine [in Madeenah] and al-Masjid al-Aqsa [in al-Quds/Jerusalem].” (Saheeh – agreed upon).
Why, we as Muslims are having strange restrictions on visiting Makkah and Madina (to have an accompanying female relative and booking via travel agent), and not even allowed (officially, by the Muslim Pakistani government rather than the Jewish Israeli government) to visit Al Aqsa. If someone blocks access to our holy sites or create restrictions, does this not form a case for war? Should we declare a war on Saudi (for creating unnecessary restrictions in visiting Makkah and Madina) or the Pakistani government (for creating problems in visiting Al-Aqsa)?
If very few or no Muslims visit Al Aqsa, wouldn’t it make it easy for Christian right wings to destroy it to fulfil their prophecy of the building of the third temple of Solomon before Judgement Day will come, as it is already has been attempted a couple of times in the past? If Makkah or Madina was held by non-Muslims, will be boycott visiting those places?
Maybe the Pakistani government is oblivious to the truth by waiting for peace to come before establishing relations as it is not an effective measure. The rain drops have a better chance of playing the Chopin tune, than the peace to come, and in the mean time, many Muslims have foregone the chance to visit Jerusalem.
Being subjective about it rather than directly aiming for it would also hide and twist the core truth of the matter – to visit Jerusalem.
Perhaps it is us as much at fault as the Pakistani Governments as it is a taboo to talk about Israel in some circles. If Pakistani deals openly with Israel, wouldn’t it be in direct position to talk about the checkpoints which make Palestinian life harder, or with the Palestinians if anything can be done about concessions?
It is about time that I apply for a visa and travel to Al Aqsa to give it the respect it should be given, come what may! Let’s hope the coming government does something about it and make a visit to Al-Aqsa easy for each and every Pakistani citizen. And by some odd chance, I’m able to get the visa to visit Jerusalem.
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