THE Palestinian Authority (PA) recalled its ambassador to Pakistan for his appearance at a public meeting on Jerusalem along with Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed. This angered Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Does the PA remember the fact that Modi is the first Indian Prime Minister to have visited and embraced leaders of the Israeli settler-colonial state?

It was not just a symbolic visit by Modi to Tel Aviv; a billion dollar plus arms deal was signed, and Modi no time to meet the PA leadership.

In the middle of all the regional developments, where so many ‘moderate’ Arab regimes have been attempting to weaken and destroy Palestinian resistance, Pakistan has been one of the few states to have stood steadfast in its refusal to ever entertain the idea of recognizing Israel.

When Gen. Pervez Musharraf during his rule merely suggested the possibility of considering diplomatic relations with Israel, a national wave of anger forced Musharraf to deny that he ever even suggested such a ridiculous idea.

If there is one issue where the Pakistani nation is united, it is on the question of Palestine. There is absolutely no compromise on their firm recognition of historic Palestine.

Briefly, Pakistan is the most pro-Palestinian country on the planet. Pakistan has been a society which has treated me, a Palestinian, not merely as a guest, but as a heroic personification of the struggle and resistance for which Pakistanis have stood shoulder to shoulder with us.

Since the day I arrived here nearly a decade ago, I noticed that Pakistani faces cheer up when I tell them I am Palestinian.

Leila Khalid, the famous Palestinian resistance fighter, once told me that nowhere on earth was she received so enthusiastically as when she visited Pakistan, where women would remove their jewellery and hand it over to her in support of the Palestinian struggle.

I apologise to every single Pakistani for the grotesquely foolish act by the PA leadership to appease an Indian leader who couldn’t care less if the Palestinians disappeared from the face of the earth.

Roba Bashir 

Islamabad

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2018