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ISLAMABAD — A US-based non-government group dedicated to selling Muslim-Jewish relations on Friday urged Pakistan’s state-run tv to rent again one among its anchors who was fired for visiting Israel with an interfaith group final month.
The plea from the Mukhayriq Initiative, which has each Muslim and Jewish members dwelling in the US and all over the world, comes days after journalist Ahmed Quraishi was taken off the air and fired by Pakistan Tv following his go to to Jerusalem, the place he met with President Isaac Herzog.
Quraishi was a part of a 15-member delegation of largely Pakistani expatriates dwelling in America that traveled to Israel. The go to got here underneath extreme criticism in Pakistan, an overwhelmingly Muslim nation with no diplomatic relations with Israel due to the Israeli-Palestinian battle.
On Monday, Pakistan’s state-run TV tweeted that it laid off Quraishi who visited Israel in a “private capability.” Pakistan’s Data Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb additionally introduced Quraishi’s elimination for the go to to Israel.
Amongst those that criticized the go to was Pakistan’s ousted former prime minister Imran Khan, a former cricket star turned Islamist politician who was voted out of workplace in April. Khan claimed the go to to Jerusalem was meant to pave the way in which for Pakistan’s eventual recognition of Israel — one thing the delegation denied. Quraishi was fired the day after Khan gave a speech that assailed the go to to Israel.
The Mukhayriq Initiative mentioned a tweet from Pakistani politician Shireen Mazari set off the controversy that obtained Quraishi fired.
The federal government has additionally mentioned there are not any plans to determine ties with Israel.
The pinnacle of the delegation, Anila Ali, a Pakistani-born US citizen dwelling in Washington, defended the go to, telling The Related Press earlier this week that they solely sought to reconcile Muslims and Jews.
Pakistani-American Anila Ali provides a e-book to President Isaac Herzog throughout a uncommon journey by a Pakistani nationwide to Israel in Might. (Twitter)
The Mukhayriq Initiative’s managing director, Ellie Cohanim, mentioned Friday that Quraishi grew to become “the goal of a political agenda for doing nothing greater than his job as a journalist.”
She instructed the AP that after criticism from Khan, “Quraishi started to obtain threats to his life” — despite the fact that he was solely doing the “job of any good journalist, [which is] to hunt data on the bottom, and to know points first-hand.”
Later Friday, Quraishi reiterated in a message despatched to the AP that his go to was one “by non-public people, with no direct hyperlinks to Pakistan and its insurance policies, and lined by me as an impartial journalist that works in Pakistan and the area.”
“For any political celebration to politicize this for momentary political profit is unlucky,” he added.
Cohanim mentioned the Mukhayriq Initiative is a brand new NGO that “seeks to construct on the shared historical past and shared values that carry Muslims and Jews collectively, realizing that united our peoples can write a brand new chapter of an historic relationship.” Quraishi is a member of the initiative’s board.
His go to to Israel supplied him “with a big alternative to proceed constructing bonds of understanding and peaceable coexistence,” the initiative mentioned in an announcement.
The group mentioned Quraishi’s firing was a “severe mistake which should be reversed.
“At a time when an increasing number of peoples of each faith and ethnicity are working in the direction of constructing societies which promote tolerance and peace, PTV is signaling the precise reverse message to the individuals of Pakistan and to the world neighborhood,” the Mukhayriq Initiative mentioned. The group referred to as on worldwide journalist teams to analyze the case, calling it a “harmful precedent.”
Israel and Pakistan have made overtures to one another up to now, most notably when the nation’s international ministers met in Istanbul in 2005 following Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. However there hasn’t been any main public push to carry the international locations nearer, whilst Israel has tightened ties lately with Pakistan’s rival, India.
In response to Pakistan’s nationwide database, there are 745 registered Jewish residents in Pakistan, which has a inhabitants of at the least 220 million.
Instances of Israel employees contributed to this report.
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