ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday rejected reports Pakistan was considering establishing trade relations with Israel, following a Jewish businessman’s tweet about successfully exporting food samples from Pakistan to Jerusalem and Haifa.
Fishel Benkhald, a Pakistani Jew based in the southern port city of Karachi, tweeted recently that his first kosher food shipment had landed in Israel. The two countries do not have diplomatic ties.
A New York-based group of American Jews also said last week the first shipment of “Pakistan-origin food products” had been offloaded in Israel.
“It is a complete lie, it has no basis,” Sharif said during a parliamentary meeting of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. “There seems to be a Jewish-Pakistani who has done some trading. What does that have to do with the government of Pakistan?”
In a tweet last week, Benkhald said he had “exported the first batch of Pakistani food products to the Israeli market.” He also shared a video clip showing his visit to an Israeli market in which he walks past stalls with containers of dates, dried fruit and spices with product tags in Hebrew.
Benkhald, who hails from Karachi, was issued a Pakistani passport as a Jew in 2019. Through his social media posts, he often advocates for trade and diplomatic ties between Pakistan and Israel.
Pakistan does not recognize Israel and has frequently issued strongly worded statements condemning Israeli aggression against Palestinian civilians. Pakistan’s foreign office on Sunday also separately clarified that there was “no change” in the country’s policy toward Israel.
Pakistan has a longstanding position of non-recognition of Israel until an independent Palestinian state is established within the pre-1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Sharif on Monday also “categorically ruled out any possibility of the relationship between Pakistan and Israel until the people of Palestine get their due right of a separate homeland,” the state-run news agency APP said.
