Antisemitism in Pakistan

Documentation of antisemitism in Pakistan includes political use of terms such as "Jewish agent," collective portrayals of Jews in schoolbooks, conspiracy rhetoric in the press, and anti-Jewish language at public rallies.[1][2] The cited material consists largely of illustrative incidents and source assessments rather than a comprehensive measurement of every institution or of Pakistani society as a whole.

The evidence also requires a distinction between opposition to Israel and hostility toward Jews. Pakistan's non-recognition of Israel is a foreign-policy position; the antisemitic material discussed here involves collective blame, conspiracy theories, derogatory religious stereotypes, or language treating Jews as inherently hostile.[3][5]

Pakistan's Jewish community was primarily Bene Israel and was concentrated in Karachi, with a smaller presence in Peshawar. Karachi had about 2,500 Jews at the beginning of the twentieth century. The Magen Shalome synagogue was built in 1893, and Abraham Reuben became the first Jewish councilor on the city corporation in 1936.[4] The community reportedly felt reasonably secure under British rule, but JewishGen records that the Pakistani government revoked its rights to political representation within a year of independence.[6]

Estimates of the community around 1948 differ: the Jewish Virtual Library gives approximately 3,000 Bene Israel Jews, while JewishGen gives approximately 2,000.[4][6] Both accounts report attacks on Jews and the setting alight of Karachi's synagogue after Israel's establishment. Disturbances during the War of Independence in 1948 and the wars of 1956 and 1967 were followed by large-scale emigration, mainly to India and also to Israel and the United Kingdom.[4]

A Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs account reports incitement and rioting against approximately 500 Jews remaining in Karachi after Egypt's defeat in the 1956 Sinai Campaign. It says Israel's Foreign Ministry urged Jewish organizations to press Pakistan in Washington and at the UN General Assembly to protect the community.[7]

JewishGen estimates that 250 Jews remained in Karachi in the early 1950s, while the Jewish Virtual Library gives 250 remaining in Pakistan by 1968.[4][6] Magen Shalome was demolished in the 1980s to make way for a shopping plaza, and most former Karachi Jews are reported to live in Ramle, Israel.[4] A 2024 State Department report said most of the historic community had emigrated and estimated that likely fewer than 200 Jews remained.[1]

Remaining Jewish families have been described as keeping a low profile, with some presenting themselves as Parsis because of intolerance toward Jews.[4] Fishel BenKhald, who grew up in a Jewish home in Karachi, petitioned from 2014 until March 2017 to change his official religious status in Pakistan's national database from Muslim to Jewish. He said that he concealed his identity from most people and hid his kippa under a baseball cap.[4]

In May 2022, BenKhald traveled to Israel with 15 other Pakistanis, most using U.S. passports. The visit was followed by a Senate resolution supporting the Palestinians and condemning Israel's "illegal occupation," while talk-show host Ahmed Quraishi was fired after returning to Pakistan.[4] Journalist Kunwar Khuldune Shahid described the discussion as involving "Islamist hyperbole and anti-Semitic hysteria," while noting that arguments for recognizing Israel also appeared in Pakistani online forums.[4]

A Pakistani resident interviewed in 2018 said there was "real danger to life" in identifying as Jewish and described antisemitism as widespread, including "among circles of the government." He also said a meeting with another Pakistani Jew was cancelled because they feared what might happen if authorities learned of it.[8] A 2016 profile described another man who said association with the Jewish people could endanger him and that neighbors became suspicious because he did not attend mosque prayers or arrange marriages for his adult daughters.[9]

Pakistan's representative opposed the proposed partition of Palestine at the United Nations in 1947.[3] The Institute for National Security Studies connects Pakistan's position both to support for Arabs and Muslims in the region and to a perceived parallel between the Arab-Jewish territorial conflict and Pakistan's dispute with India over Jammu and Kashmir. As of early 2023, Pakistan had no diplomatic relations with Israel and maintained that it would not recognize Israel until the Palestinian issue was resolved.[3]

Debate over normalization has periodically emerged without changing official policy. In December 2020, cleric and JUI-F leader Maulana Muhammad Khan supported normalization, arguing that the Quran and history showed that the Land of Israel belonged to Jews. Pakistani-American delegations visited Israel in 2022, but the May delegation was not connected to Pakistan's government. The Pakistani military subsequently reaffirmed non-recognition of Israel and support for a Palestinian state.[3]

Anti-Zionist policy has at times overlapped with anti-Jewish rhetoric. At the 1974 Second Islamic Summit, Prime Minister Z. A. Bhutto declared: "To Jews as Jews we bear no malice; to Jews as Zionists, intoxicated with their militarism and reeking with technological arrogance, we refuse to be hospitable."[4] During the 1991 Gulf War, influential figures promoted claims that anti-Muslim forces were acting at Israel's and the "Zionist lobby's" behest, while the Jamaat-e-Islami leader called the conflict "the war between the Jews, the worst enemy of Islam, and the Muslims." Pakistani media later used the phrase "Zionist threat on our borders" after India established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992.[4]

Antisemitic sentiment was described as widespread in Pakistan's vernacular press in 2024, with some politicians and media using terms such as "Jewish agent" and references to "Zionist conspiracies." On February 6, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Moulana Fazal ur Rehman called former prime minister Imran Khan a "Jewish agent" funded by Jewish and Indian agencies. On July 16, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar alleged that Khan's PTI received money from Jewish and Christian donors.[1]

The accusation has circulated across party lines. After Khan's 1996 marriage to Jemima Goldsmith, an Egyptian newspaper distributed in Pakistan accused him of receiving campaign funds from the "Jewish lobby"; its deputy editor later retracted the allegation and apologized.[4] In later political statements, Khan himself attributed reduced coverage of his party to "the Jewish lobby," which he said "controls the global media," and alleged that an Israeli lobby sought to roll back Pakistan's nuclear program.[10]

During a live television program on September 27, 2023, a Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz senator called Khan an "agent of Jews" and a "sinner," leading to an on-air fistfight with a PTI spokesperson.[11] In 2017, a Jamaat-i-Islami member of the Karachi City Council had similarly described an attempted change to an electoral oath as a conspiracy between the PML-N government and "Jewish elites."[12]

A 2018 report recorded Pakistani leaders blaming Jews for introducing Valentine's Day and April Fools' Day, calling the United Nations a Jewish conspiracy, alleging Jewish or Israeli plots against Pakistan's nuclear weapons, and describing Facebook and polio vaccination campaigns as Jewish conspiracies.[10] During a 2021 CNN interview, then-Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Jews had "deep pockets" and "control the media." Days earlier, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan quoted from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in parliament.[13]

Conspiratorial interpretations also followed the September 11 attacks. At a Jamaat-e-Islami demonstration in Islamabad on October 6, 2001, hundreds of women condemned the attacks while blaming "Zionist terrorists" rather than Osama bin Laden's associates; one placard read "Zionist=Terrorist."[5] Another party leader claimed that Jews had sold shares in United and American Airlines before the attacks.[14]

State Department reporting cited surveys in which 71 percent of Pakistani respondents held an unfavorable view of Jews in 2006, compared with 74 percent in 2005.[5] In a separate question about the false claim that 4,000 Jewish workers had avoided the World Trade Center on September 11, 71 percent called it a "possible fact," 13 percent a rumor, and 16 percent baseless.[5]

The Hamas-led terrorist attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023, and the ensuing war produced additional documented anti-Jewish rhetoric in Pakistan. Sources present at rallies said JUI-F and Jamaat-e-Islami leaders commonly emphasized Israel's religious identity and cited Quranic passages portraying Jews and Christians as "perpetual adversaries of Islam."[11]

Protests outside American-owned fast-food franchises in Peshawar in October and November often included antisemitic rhetoric. At a JUI-F rally outside a Peshawar McDonald's on November 4, protest leaders reportedly urged Muslims to "play their role cutting off the economic supply line of the Jews."[11]

On October 27, 2023, Senator Afnan Ullah Khan of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) reportedly posted an image of Adolf Hitler on X with the words: "At least now the world know [sic], why he did, what he did." The American Jewish Committee qualified the post as reported rather than independently verified.[15]

Earlier statements during the May 2021 Israel-Hamas conflict included parliamentarian Maulana Chitrali asking: "Did we make atomic bombs to show them in a museum? We don't need missiles, atomic bombs or a huge army if they can't be used to liberate Palestine." A Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan leader declared that Pakistani Muslims would not accept the "filthy feet of Jews in Jerusalem," while an unnamed Islamist parliamentarian called for Muslims to pursue "world domination like the Jews."[13]

An August 2025 IMPACT-se review examined government-approved textbooks from Punjab, Sindh, and the Federal Directorate against UNESCO-derived standards concerning respect, incitement, peacemaking, and unbiased information. Its executive summary says 86 textbooks were examined, while the report's methodology section describes content analysis of 75 textbooks and 106 examples.[2]

IMPACT-se found that Jews appeared principally in accounts of early Islamic history and were often portrayed collectively as conspiratorial, disloyal, or treacherous toward Muhammad and the early Muslim community. It also found Judaism omitted from a comparative-religion chapter covering Hinduism, Christianity, Confucianism, and Taoism, and no mention of the Holocaust in the reviewed discussion of Israel's establishment.[2]

A Federal Board Grade 6 Islamic Education textbook described Jewish tribes in Medina as involved in "various conspiracies" and stated, "the Jews, as usual, violated this too," referring to a treaty. A Punjab Board Grade 7 textbook said Jewish hostility and jealousy increased and that Jews "collaborated with the hypocrites in hatching conspiracies." A Sindh Board Grade 5 textbook said Jews caused Jesus "extreme sufferings" and suggested collusion with the Romans in his crucifixion, without mentioning that Jesus was Jewish or providing broader context.[2]

The review also documented positive material. Textbooks stated that all religions teach peace and tolerance, called for respect for other religions' places of worship and festivals, and listed Hanukkah and Passover among religious festivals. IMPACT-se cautioned that the Jewish festivals received little explanation.[2] The report also identified a civics textbook that praised Hitler for restoring German pride without mentioning Nazi atrocities, while a Grade 12 Pakistan Studies textbook blamed Israel for Gaza's humanitarian crisis without referring to the Hamas-led October 7 attack.[2][16]

Earlier State Department reporting had relayed monitoring-group findings that some public-school textbooks contained derogatory statements about minority religious groups, including Jews, although the 2017 report did not identify specific anti-Jewish passages.[12]

State Department reporting covering July 2003 through December 2004 described antisemitic sentiment and press articles as widespread, particularly in the Urdu press, despite the reported absence of an active Jewish community.[17] It also recorded Pakistani media references to India as the "Zionist threat on our borders" after India established diplomatic relations with Israel, while noting that this media attitude was not reflected in government actions at that time.[17]

In 2020, an Urdu-language Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan magazine blamed "the Jews and their puppets" for the COVID-19 pandemic and for harassing Muslims. Its author claimed that COVID-19 had been hidden since the 1960s to be "used against Muslims."[18] The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs has described conspiracy-driven Muslim apocalyptic and jihadi literature as widespread in Pakistan and often written originally in Urdu, although its account does not identify a representative sample of Pakistani publications.[19]

A Pakistani edition of the fraudulent antisemitic text The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was published in Karachi in 1969. Saudi King Faisal regularly presented copies of that edition to state visitors in the early 1970s.[20]

Kasim Hafeez, who grew up in a Pakistani Muslim immigrant community in Nottingham, recalled claims that Jews controlled the United States, United Nations, and media being presented as facts. He also described his father praising Hitler and saying Hitler had not killed enough Jews. Hafeez argued that antisemitism was ingrained in Pakistani culture and education, although his personal account concerns the Pakistani diaspora in Britain rather than conditions inside Pakistan directly.[21]

Fishel BenKhald described hearing what he called "anti-Semitic propaganda and conspiracy theories" from Pakistani government and media sources, including claims that problems were caused by an "imaginary Jewish/Israeli conspiracy." He said he spent as much time away from Pakistan as possible.[22]

The documentation spans official reports, advocacy research, journalism, and testimony from people identifying as Jewish in Pakistan. Recurring elements include the disappearance of most of the historic Jewish community, circulation of conspiracy texts, use of anti-Jewish allegations as political weapons, and collective portrayals of Jews in state-approved textbooks.

Sources describe some remaining Jews as concealing their identity. BenKhald required three years of petitioning, from 2014 to 2017, to have his Jewish identity recorded in the national database.[4] Ynet reporting described individuals hiding Jewish practices or ancestry because of fear of neighbors and authorities.[8][9]

Survey figures record very low favorable opinions of Jews but do not directly measure every form of antisemitic belief. State Department reporting cited 5–6 percent favorable views in 2005–2006, while Rabbi Jonathan Sacks cited a 2011 Pew figure of 2 percent favorable.[5][23]

Antisemitism is distinct from, though sometimes intertwined with, Pakistan's anti-Zionist policy. The relevant distinction is between criticism or non-recognition of Israel and rhetoric that attributes conspiratorial, treacherous, or inherently hostile qualities to Jews as a group.

The available evidence does not form a consistent census or comprehensive national survey. Estimates of the Jewish community vary by date and source: approximately 2,000 or 3,000 around 1948, 250 in Karachi in the early 1950s, 250 nationwide by 1968, and likely fewer than 200 in the 2024 State Department report.[4][6] A 2016 Ynet article also relayed a 2014 media estimate of about seven Jews, but the sources use different methods and cannot be treated as a single demographic series.[1][9]

The IMPACT-se report itself gives two textbook totals: 86 in its executive summary and 75 in its methodology section. Its interpretations of selected passages are evaluative findings by an advocacy research organization, although the quoted textbook language and identified omissions can be examined separately from those interpretations.[2]

Opinion polls cited in the sources measure favorability toward Jews rather than agreement with a standardized set of antisemitic propositions. Likewise, Pakistan's support for Palestinians, criticism of Israeli policy, or refusal to recognize Israel is not by itself evidence of antisemitism. The classification depends on specific anti-Jewish stereotypes, conspiracy claims, collective blame, or incitement rather than political opposition to Israel alone.[3][23]