Surrounded by Orthodox Jewish men sporting a kippah or a Fedora, Biber or Hoiche hat, I stood at the Wailing Wall – a 19 BCE limestone embankment in the Old City of Jerusalem - in the summer of 2006 as they swayed back and forth begging for divine protection against Katyusha missiles falling somewhere in the north of the paramecium-shaped country. With a yarmulke on my head too I dreaded being revealed as a Pakistani Muslim swaying amidst the hardcore Jews at one of their holiest places. But that’s the risk a journalist takes at times to be in the thick of a story. I was in Israel to cover the Second Lebanon War as a broadcast journalist.

Interestingly, there was no ‘actual’ war in Jerusalem or some of the known Israeli towns that I travelled to during my assignment including the country’s erstwhile temporary capital, Tel Aviv. Bars, cafes, restaurants and shopping malls were buzzing with normality. A full-blown war was, however, raging on the media. One had to go all the way up to the northern Israeli towns of Haifa or Nahariya to observe what Israel was projecting as war. Everything was routine in Pakistan too vis-à-vis another Israeli-Lebanese-Palestinian guerre. Statements condemning Israeli aggression and asking the international community to play its part to sort out the mess created in 1948.

The present conflict is different in many ways but Pakistan’s official reaction is pretty similar. Pakistani politicians hardly come together on national matters but show astonishing unity on issues like Palestine though the overall performance remains theatrical and cosmetic. In 2006, the government and the opposition had unanimously adopted a resolution condemning Israeli aggression against Lebanon. The session had criticised the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the United Nations Security Council for failing to play the part expected of them.

Government stance in 2021 is almost the same. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi was a Pakistan Peoples Party stalwart in 2006 but his speech in the special session of the National Assembly this week sounded exactly like the one he had delivered a decade and a half ago. Khusro Bakhtiar, a state minister for foreign affairs in the Musharraf cabinet had demanded in 2006 the creation of a Muslim army to fight against the enemies of the Ummah. He will think twice before repeating his demand today as times and leaders have changed. So has his portfolio.

Interestingly, Prime Minister Imran Khan, who reportedly remained “very concerned” about the Palestinian imbroglio and the recent Israeli aggression against Gaza and the West Bank during his recent visit to Saudi Arabia, absented himself from the National Assembly session convened to discuss the issue. The baton was handed over to Foreign Minister Qureshi to lead the Treasury brigade and retell Pakistan’s ‘principled’ stance on the situation.

Thousands of Pakistani men, women and youth marched in major cities and towns protesting against the Zionist state’s barbarity towards a virtually incarcerated population.

While public posturing was prompt and audacious – prime minister’s telephonic conversations with the Turkish, the Saudi, the Palestinian and the Malaysian leadership etc to highlight the unity of purpose – internal doubts about the hollowness of strategy were coiling up the capital grapevine. The logic of Foreign Minister Qureshi’s hurried trip to Turkey and his onward journey to New York for a United Nations session along with the Turkish, Sudanese and Palestinian counterparts was questioned in the inner sanctums of the party cadres and by those who wield substantial influence on the country’s foreign policy. There were too many questions and the answers were in short supply. Should Pakistan be leaning towards Turkey within days of the Saudi visit of the prime minister and the military leadership? Should Iran be spoken to or not? What should be Pakistan’s policy on engagement with Israel’s Muslim neighbours? How would the Arabs react to our cozying up with non-Arabs? Where did Sudan come into it at all?

Prime Minister’s Special Representative on Religious Harmony and the Middle East, Hafiz Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi was very clear on government’s strategy. “We are talking to all the brotherly Muslim countries to seek consensus so that a united stance is adopted on the issue. Primacy stays with the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and that is why Saudi Arabia, the current chair of the 57-strong body, convened an emergency meeting of the foreign ministers that clearly stated that the OIC renews rejection and condemnation of ongoing Israeli settlement colonisation of, and establishment of an apartheid system, in the Occupied Palestinian territories.”

Successive Pakistani governments have restrained themselves to the guidelines set by a pusillanimous Foreign Office regarding the Palestinian issue. The approach preferred by leading political parties barring a handful of religio-political outfits has been similar. It is heartening, however, to see the cause of the Palestinian people being adopted by the civil society and rights organisations in Pakistan. Thousands of Pakistani men, women and youth marched in major cities and towns protesting against the Zionist state’s barbarity towards a virtually incarcerated population. By coming out in the streets to express solidarity with the Palestinian people, the Pakistani public has not only struck a chord with the international public mood that saw millions march across all continents but has also claimed the cause from the rightwing street agitators. They have outwitted the government too that tried to lean on the religious parties for support by declaring Friday, May 21, as a national protest day.

In an exclusive conversation with The News, the Palestinian Ambassador to Islamabad, Ahmed Rabei thanked the Pakistani government, the parliamentarians, the civil society and the people at large for their support for the people of Palestine. “What more can we Palestinians wish for when the whole of Pakistan is saying ‘nahno ma’ana Falasteen’, (we are all with Palestine). I know the hearts of Pakistanis are beating with the hearts of Palestinian people. We are thankful to you all”.

The writer works with the Jang Group of   Publications.