A group of Pakistani journalists and educators made a rare visit to Israel last week, defying their country’s travel restrictions.
It should be noted that Pakistan, a Muslim-majority nation, has no formal diplomatic ties with Israel and prohibits its citizens from traveling there.
According to reports, the 10-member delegation—comprising eight men and two women—arrived in Tel Aviv last Monday.
The group included journalists, intellectuals, and social media influencers who visited various sites across Israel to gain firsthand insights. The visit was facilitated by the Israeli NGO Sharaka, which promotes dialogue between Israel and Muslim-majority nations. This was the largest Pakistani delegation hosted by the organization to date.
Speaking to Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) in Tel Aviv, Pakistani journalist and documentary filmmaker Sabin Agha, one of the two women in the group, expressed her desire to explore the realities of Israel beyond what she had been taught. “I always wanted to come to Israel to find answers to my questions and challenge the narrative presented by my country and the Muslim world about Jews,” she said. “I am not surprised to find the complete opposite of what the state narrative of Muslim countries was.”
Kaswar Klasra, editor-in-chief of The Islamabad Telegraph, echoed similar sentiments, describing the hospitality they received from the moment they landed at Ben-Gurion International Airport. “We had only been exposed to one-sided information before this visit,” he said. “Pakistanis will find it difficult to accept the truth because they have been fed baseless negative narratives about Israel by both global and local media.”
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Foreign Office reaffirmed on Thursday that the country’s stance on Israel remains unchanged. It stated that officials were investigating reports of the delegation’s visit but emphasized that Pakistan does not recognize Israel.
The country’s passport explicitly prohibits travel to Israel, and Islamabad continues to advocate for an independent Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif (Jerusalem) as its capital.
