The American Jewish Congress claims that the bilateral trade occurred when the first shipment of Pakistani-origin food was unloaded in Israel.
Posted Date – 11:30 PM, Sunday – 4/2/23
Islamabad: Amid reports of goods exchange between Pakistan and Israel, Pakistan’s Foreign Office (FO) and Ministry of Trade and Commerce on Sunday denied any trade with the country, according to media reports.
The American Jewish Congress (AJC) claims that the bilateral trade occurred when the first shipment of Pakistani-origin food was unloaded in Israel.
Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Mumtaz Zahra Baloch clarified the alleged trade, saying Pakistan has no diplomatic or trade relations with Israel, Geo News reported.
“There is no change in policy,” she stressed.
A Commerce Ministry spokesman said the AJC’s press release was misattributed as it made no reference to Pakistan’s official trade relationship with Israel.
“Rumors about the start of Israeli-Palestinian trade are purely propaganda. We neither have nor intend to have trade relations with Israel,” the spokesman said, according to Geo News.
On March 30, the American Jewish Congress issued a statement on “trade between the State of Israel and Pakistan,” stating that Israel had received the country’s first shipment.
“This week, the first shipment of food products originating in Pakistan was unloaded in Israel in a transaction involving Fishel Benkhald, a Pakistani Jewish businessman in Karachi, Pakistan’s commercial hub, and three Israeli businessmen from Jerusalem and Haifa,” the statement read, Geo News reported.
It also said the alleged trade had been widely reported in both Pakistani and international media.
The AJC has said the two countries have yet to establish diplomatic relations, but entrepreneurs and technologists from both countries “forge ahead in the pursuit of shared prosperity”.
“Thanks for this initiative [alleged first trade] Eighteen years ago, the restrictions and licenses that restricted Israeli-Palestinian trade were abolished,” it added, Geo News reported.
Ben Khald, a Pakistani citizen from Sindh province with a Jewish background, was a staunch supporter of trade relations between Israel and Pakistan. He is in the business of the kosher food industry.
