The notion that Israel and Pakistan are the only two ‘ideological’ countries in the world, has almost become a cliché. Academics such as Faisal Devji of Oxford University have sought to draw parallels between the two countries with historical similarities.

When Devji published Muslim Zion: Pakistan as a Political Idea (2013), he drew both appreciation and deprecation from opposing schools of thought. According to Devji, Zion is more like a political form rather than a holy land, and both Israel and Pakistan try to promote a sense of belonging more than their stress on hereditary linkages between ethnicity and soil. Both witnessed mass migration of a minority population that abandoned old lands for fear of persecution, and settled in a new homeland. Both have a religious ideology as the justification for their creation and existence.

Similarities aside, there appear to be even more differences between the two; and that’s where Yossi Sarid is relevant to Pakistan. For those who keep an eye on the politics of Middle East, Yossi Sarid was a familiar name, because he hovered like a gadfly and agitated the Israeli state and the Jewish religious lobby. Sarid died of a heart attack in Tel Aviv on December 4 at the age of 75, leaving behind a legacy of persistent struggle against the predominant state-narrative in Israel. He was a preeminent politician and news commentator, and also served as a member of the Knesset (Israeli parliament) for 32 years -- from 1974 to 2006.

The impact and seriousness of his left-wing politics can be gauged from the celebrations that the far-right activists unleashed the day Sarid died. One far-right politician tweeted, "When the wicked perish, there is joy, may his name be blotted out; a good week has begun." Sounds familiar? Remember the day Salman Taseer was shot dead?

But despite the overwhelming barbaric treatment the Israeli state metes out to Palestinians, its handling of a counter-narrative within Israel is quite in contrast with what we have in Pakistan. Israel has not only allowed progressive intellectuals and politicians to work freely, but has also taken them on board whenever the need arose. Yossi Sari had represented Ratz and Meretz parties in the Knesset and both parties had been in the forefront of the Israeli peace camp opposing the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza strip. Ratz party was a left-wing political party that was officially named as the Movement for Civil Rights and Peace focusing on human rights, civil rights, and women’s rights.

While in Pakistan, the Progressive Writers Association (PWA) was banned and progressive writers such as Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Sajjad Zaheer were put behind bars, Israel allowed intellectuals such as Yossi Sarid and Shulamit Aloni -- who advocated separation of religion and state -- to pursue their ideals.

In Pakistan, Progressive Papers Ltd of Mian Iftikharuddin was perhaps the only publishing house that printed relatively left-wing papers such as Pakistan Times in English and Imroze in Urdu; but even those were forcibly taken into state custody after Martial Law was imposed in 1958. In Israel, numerous newspapers, magazines, and periodicals were free to voice their concerns against the atrocities committed by their own state.

Sarid joined Ratz party in 1984. In 1992, Ratz merged with Shinui and Mapam parties to form Meretz, which was a coined word joining letters from Ratz and Mapam. Meretz has always stressed upon a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, social justice, human rights -- especially for ethnic and sexual minorities -- , religious freedom for all, and environmentalism.

Winning 12 seats in Knesset in 1992, Meretz joined Yitzhak Rabin’s coalition and Sarid became minister for environment. In 1995, Rabin was assassinated and Shimon Peres formed the government, retaining Sarid as a minister. Next year, Sarid replaced Aloni as Meretz leader and in 1999 became education minister after Ehud Barak persuaded Sarid to join the government. That was an interesting experiment for him in the sense that he was almost a paralysed minister in the presence of a strong rightest lobby that blocked his each move to liberalise and secularise the state education system that was strongly tilted towards Jewish nationalism almost bordering on paranoia against Palestinians.

As education minister, Sarid was circumscribed by his deputy minister of education from Shas -- an ultra-orthodox religious political party in Israel. Within a year, Sarid had to resign because he felt that he was a nominal minister and could not make the changes in the education system that he thought was reeking with religiosity. Sounds familiar again, doesn’t it?

In 2006, Sarid retired from active politics but continued with his crusade for peace between Israel and Palestinians based on two-state solution as laid out in the Geneva Accord of 2003 and its supplement of 2009. Sarid was a strong critic of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and fought for the protection of human rights in the Israeli-occupied territories. His writings advocated rights of minorities such as Israeli Arabs and foreign workers. In the face of repeated Israeli military operations and reciprocal Palestinian uprisings, it was an uphill task to criticise one’s own army and paramilitary forces, but for Sarid it was a battle waged by his own conscience and he waged it well till his last days.

His last article appeared just two days before he passed away. His elocution was faultless and his erudition unsurpassed among his fellow politicians. He stood out as a sharp-tongued ideologue of the left and commanded respect even from his discerning opponents -- not from ultra-right, of course. His proficiency in languages, especially in Hebrew, was on such a high level that the late Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, once urged the parliament members of all parties to sit in the plenum when Sarid spoke -- just to learn from him proper use of the language. His entire life he summed up in the following lines in 2014:

"I was involved in legislating dozens of laws, perhaps hundreds. But my glory didn’t lie in legislative work, if there is any glory in it. The Israeli law books are full of laws that aren’t enforced anyway. I made a name for myself in many different positions as someone who is determined to go against the wind when it’s bad, to swim against the stream if it’s dirty, and is prepared to pay the price for his determination."

Do they make such politicians in Pakistan? Probably not anymore. Parween Rahman and Sabeen Mahmood come to mind, but they were not politicians, not in the conventional sense at least; they were from the cursed civil society.

Following is a poem by Yossi Sarid

Lineup

I went to a famous man’s funeral.

I didn’t recognize the young people because of their youth

and I didn’t recognize the old people because they had aged.

If there were a police lineup for me today,

I’d have a hard time identifying myself.

They’d need to have photos of me

that were posted up

at all the stations of my life

in the days when I was wanted

Translated from Hebrew by Vivian Eden, from "ShirimAharei" ("Poems After").