ISLAMABAD: For a country that loudly condemns Israel at every turn, Pakistan’s leadership has been remarkably discreet in its behind-the-scenes manoeuvring to establish relations with the Jewish state of Israel. Case in point: March 2025, when a 10-member delegation of Pakistani journalists and educators quietly landed in Israel—the largest such group to date. While the official stance remains one of hostility, this visit hints at a much more complicated reality, where public rhetoric and private diplomacy dance an intricate, often contradictory, waltz.
Pakistan has never officially recognized Israel, and its passports explicitly state that they are valid for travel to all countries except Israel. Despite this, there have been covert interactions between the two nations, particularly in areas of security and intelligence.
This is not the first time conversations about warming ties with Israel have surfaced in Pakistan. Several Pakistani military generals have publicly advocated for exploring diplomatic relations, highlighting the tension between military pragmatism and political ideology.
In the decades following the 9/11 attacks, Pakistan’s military establishment has quietly explored the prospect of forging closer ties with Israel, despite the country’s official stance of non-recognition toward the Jewish state. In the past, Pakistani leaders, including former President Pervez Musharraf, have hinted at the possibility of establishing diplomatic ties, but domestic opposition has prevented any formal steps. Efforts to pursue it became particularly tangible during the tenure of former Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa.
Despite his fierce public condemnation of Israel and his repeated claims that India and Israel were complicit in a U.S.-backed conspiracy to overthrow his government, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan ironically pioneered Track-II diplomacy with Israel. The contradiction is hard to ignore—while he railed against normalization, behind closed doors, he was laying the groundwork for quiet engagement. His rhetoric may have stirred anti-Israel sentiment among his supporters, but his own diplomatic maneuvering suggests a more nuanced—or perhaps hypocritical—reality.
In May 2022 an official or semi-official delegation from Pakistan met the Israeli president. Anila Ali, a Pakistani American and member of AMWEC (American Muslim and Multifaith Women’s Empowerment Council) shared a photograph in her twitter account, informing the world that she met the Israeli President on May 12 to present a book written by her father, Qutubbudin Ahmed on Tehreek-e-Pakistan and Quaid-e-Azam, Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Infact Anila Ali, who led the delegation, thanked Imran’s Government for allowing two Pakistanis along with British and American Pakistanis to visit Israel, reported Geo TV on May 31, 2022. She also thanked Imran’s Government to allow A Pakistani Jew, BenKhald, to write “Judaism” as his religion in Pakistani Passport for the first time in the history of Pakistan.
More recent developments have brought the Pakistani establishment’s underlying shift towards Israel into sharper focus. In March 2025, a Pakistani delegation visited Israel, an event orchestrated by Sharaka, an NGO allegedly linked to Mossad funding. Sharaka, meaning “partnership” in Arabic, was established following the 2020 Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and several Arab states. The organization plays a key role in bridging diplomatic gaps between Israel and Middle Eastern and South Asian nations, particularly those without formal diplomatic relations. The 10-member delegation of Pakistani journalists and educators to Israel was the largest such group to date.
The Pakistani delegation’s itinerary was packed with symbolic stops: Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial; the Knesset, the country’s parliament; and the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. For many, the experience challenged long-held assumptions. A journalist from Pakistan described being stunned by the freedom to pray at Al-Aqsa, a reality at odds with narratives prevalent in Pakistan. An editor in the group pledged to share his revelations with his audience.
Unsurprisingly, reactions in Pakistan have been divisive. Public sentiment, inflamed by conflicts like the Gaza war, remains strongly anti-Israel, making such engagements highly controversial. While supporters argue that Sharaka’s work could lay the foundation for diplomatic engagement, critics view it as part of an externally driven agenda, linked to the Abraham Accords, which many Pakistanis believe their nation is not ready to embrace. Nonetheless, the delegation’s willingness to engage marks a bold and contentious step forward, made possible by Sharaka’s determination to navigate closed diplomatic waters.
Interestingly, Pakistani military information operation accounts, which outwardly maintain a pro-Palestine stance—often used to divert attention from internal military repression—have reportedly attempted to downplay the delegation’s visit to Israel. These accounts have actively discouraged debate over the military’s authorization of the trip, which is believed to have received intelligence clearance and may have been indirectly financed by a Mossad-linked organization.
Anti-Semitism is deeply entrenched in Pakistan and its citizens have long been fed a steady diet of gross exaggerations and falsehoods painting Jews in a negative, conspiratorial light. The contention that Israel and/or Jews are obsessively engaged in a long-term plot to destabilize or defang Muslims and that Pakistan has a foundational, if not sanctified, duty to dismantle Israel, is practically an iron rule of Pakistani grassroots and political discourse. The military establishment and politicians all have been trying to cash in on this deep rooted prejudice that Pakistanis have against Jews and Israel.
As Saudi Arabia and the UAE—two of the most prominent Sunni-majority nations—actively consider closer ties with Israel, driven largely by economic and strategic interests, Pakistan too appears eager to join the game. However, unlike its Gulf counterparts, Pakistan is trying to play safe, attempting to engage diplomatically while publicly maintaining its anti-Israel stance. The secretive balancing act underscores a deeper political hypocrisy, where rhetoric and reality sharply diverge.
As these developments unfold, they are set to fuel debate within Pakistan and reverberate across the regional geopolitical landscape. Whether this moment signals the beginning of a diplomatic thaw or a fleeting anomaly, one thing is certain—the dynamics of Pakistan-Israel relations are evolving, and the conversation is far from over.
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