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The ones reading this piece must have, at least once in their life been part of a discussion or watched us being proud of the fact Pakistan is one such country whose citizens are banned from visiting Israel. The historical fact is that Israel’s founder, David Ben Gurion in 1947 had sent Mr. Mohammed Ali Jinnah a telegram in an attempt to establish diplomatic relations between both nations but it was ignored and till date, Pakistan does not recognize Israel’s entity as an independent state.
Nobody can disagree with the fact that Israel has illegally occupied the state of Palestine and has been putting endless torments upon them. But saying that, banning Israel is not a solution at all. According to the Muslim belief, Al-Aqsa Mosque is our first Qiblah and today, access to Jerusalem and the West Bank is controlled by Israel. To visit the mosque, one must enter Israel first, the only other option is through Allenby Crossing which is located in Jordan.
We are all familiar with the incident of Prophet Abraham who was called upon to sacrifice his son, either at the rock or at Mecca known as the Dome of the Rock, it is present at a gloriously beautiful Islamic shrine also located in Jerusalem and hence us Pakistanis won’t ever be able to see it with our own eyes. In fact, it’s not just about Muslims, many famous Christian symbolic and religious sights like Church of the Holy Sepulcher and Mount of Olives, considered among Christianity’s holiest sites are also located in the banned country. The Pakistani Christians are also at loss here.
Since long, we have been firm on the fact that Pakistan should only recognize Israel if it gives an independent state to Palestinians, and only then Pakistan would start its diplomatic relations with them. To be honest, it is a bogus theory because sitting outside and having no communication at all is never going to resolve the crisis in Palestine. How do you even suppose that they would understand our perspective when we have stopped our citizens from visiting that country and having Israelis form opinions about us?
Even in the Prophet (PBUH) time, there were several countries and tribes who were against Muslims and continuously creating hurdles along to stop them from spreading the message of peace. Did the Prophet (PBUH) ever refrain any of his disciples to not visit the place because those people are downright evil? He visited or conveyed his message to each one of them offering allegiance and peace. Many converted to Islam and from amongst them, came great warriors who fought ultimate battles.
So, why in this modern era where traveling is done in airplanes, not camels, we are halting from representing our country in a state which has no clue about who we are as people? Currently, Pakistan is nothing but a thorn in their eyes because well, we have them to the point of eliminating our own chance to visit sacred Islamic places situated in their country.
No one can actually predict when Palestine would ultimately be free or if both countries would ever strike a peace deal. If we must wait for all this to happen then we are basically handing over our consecrated sites to them on a platter. They are free to do whatever they want because we are waiting for Israel to hand us over Palestine. Before that, we don’t bother if they split the mosque or rule over it. The location of the mosque is claimed as the sight of Temple of Solomon by Jews and several plans and attempts have been made to destroy the mosque and rebuild the temple.
The recent scenario is that Muslim worshipers are often refused to enter the mosque by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) while the Jewish settlers can enter its courtyard with heavy guard protection. I am not claiming that it is a probable solution but prayer halls in full use across the year by visitors could have prevented the continuously increasing Israeli occupation across its premises. God Almighty has no put any restriction on visiting a certain country so our government imposing such restrictions is clearly in conflict with the Islamic principles and can further damaging the probability of a free Palestinian state.
