Imran was shot for being too ‘pro-Israel’: report

Former prime minister Imran Khan was targeted at a political rally in Wazirabad last week because the attacker said he was too “pro-Israel,” says Israeli media.

According to Israeli newspaper “Haaretz,” Imran Khan is hardly the first Pakistani leader to endorse venomous narratives for political gains. “He used violence to promote his politics. He harmed parliamentary supremacy, supported attacks on civilian leaders and widened the scope of blasphemy laws. When he was ousted he created confusion through conspiracy theories. When a Pakistani group visited Israel in May, Khan regurgitated the same antisemitic allegations that had been used against him, referencing the new government’s movement towards recognizing the Jewish state,” it added.

Pakistan reportedly inched closer to its formalisation of ties with the Jewish state. Much of the progress on that front happened on Imran Khan’s watch – while he was in government, according to the newspaper. In October 2018, two months into the Imran Khan-led government taking over, the local media was brimming with claims that Israel’s then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had visited Pakistan. Next year, a meeting with George Soros over potential developmental reforms in Pakistan, rekindled the antisemitic conspiracy theories against Khan, rooted in his first marriage to Jemima Goldsmith.

The report said the prospect of official ties between the two countries moved in synchrony with the efforts towards the Abraham Accords in 2020. By 2021, Khan’s closest aides were issuing clarifications over their own reported visits to Israel. When contacted, PTI sources said the report was baseless.