by Muhammad Mohsin Iqbal
Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founding father of Pakistan, was a statesman whose decisions were guided not merely by immediate political gain but by moral clarity, foresight, and an unswerving commitment to principle. Among his many momentous choices, one stands out as a beacon of both his vision and his courage; his categorical refusal to recognize the State of Israel. At a time when many nations, swayed by great powers or by promises of strategic advantage, yielded to expediency, Jinnah chose the harder path of aligning Pakistan with justice, the cause of Palestine, and the conscience of the Muslim world.
The creation of Israel in May 14, 1948 was the culmination of a long and controversial process that had begun decades earlier. The Balfour Declaration was issued on November 2, 1917 which was a formal letter from British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord Walter Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community. In this letter, the British government expressed its support for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people,” laid the groundwork for a massive upheaval in the Arab lands. For the Muslim world, this was not merely a matter of territorial adjustment; it was a question of usurpation and dispossession, where a people who had lived for centuries in their homeland were being systematically deprived of their rights. Quaid-e-Azam, who was acutely aware of the historical forces at play, recognized that the birth of Israel would be accompanied by tragedy for the Palestinians and danger for the wider Muslim ummah.
In 1939, during the Roundtable Conference on Palestine, Muhammad Ali Jinnah sent Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman and Abdur Rehman Siddiqui to support the Palestinians and Grand Mufti Amin Al-Husseini. In July of that year, Jinnah criticized the British White Paper for proposing a single state and restricted Jewish immigration, advocating instead for Arab demands to be addressed. He pledged support to the Supreme Arab Council, initiated the Palestine Fund, and reaffirmed his stance at the historic Lahore Session in March 1940.
Pakistan itself was still in its infancy when Israel proclaimed its independence. The newly born state faced enormous challenges at home—millions displaced, communal violence fresh in memory, and a fragile economy struggling to survive. Yet Quaid-e-Azam found time to devote his attention to the plight of Palestine. On 26 August 1947, shortly after Pakistan’s birth was being envisioned, the Quaid received a delegation from the Palestine Committee, led by the eminent Palestinian leader Hajj Amin al-Husseini. In that meeting Jinnah gave his firm assurance that Pakistan would stand shoulder to shoulder with the Arabs in their just struggle against the imposition of a foreign-backed state in their midst.
His position was neither impulsive nor emotional; it was grounded in principle and conviction. Quaid-e-Azam saw the issue through the prism of justice and international morality. To him, Israel represented a state carved out through the forced displacement of an indigenous people, engineered by colonial manipulation, and sustained by Western powers seeking to dominate the Middle East. For a leader who had fought so hard for the right of Muslims in India to determine their own destiny, the denial of that same right to the Palestinians was unacceptable.
That moral conviction found concrete expression in Jinnah’s direct appeals to the great powers of the day. Deeply alarmed by the United Nations’ decision to enforce partition, he addressed a personal and urgent appeal to the President of the United States. In a telegram to President Harry Truman, Jinnah protested the UN measure as not only legally unsound but morally indefensible. He warned that partition, if imposed against the united resistance of the Arabs, would be impossible to enforce and would sow long-term instability. He reminded the American people of their historic commitment to justice and pleaded that the United States use its influence to uphold the rights of the Arab people and avert consequences that would imperil world peace. This direct appeal to American conscience and leadership encapsulated Jinnah’s belief that international law and moral duty must guide statesmanship, not mere expediency.
The events of 1947–48 only reinforced Jinnah’s view. When the first Arab–Israeli war erupted after Israel’s declaration of independence, Palestinian villages were razed, hundreds of thousands were driven into exile, and the city of Jerusalem became the scene of fierce contestation. The suffering of the Palestinians was not distant news; it was a living wound felt across the Muslim world. Pakistan, under Jinnah’s guidance, took a clear position. At the United Nations General Assembly in September 1947, Pakistan’s representative, Sir Zafarullah Khan, eloquently opposed the partition plan and warned of its grave consequences. His speech on the international stage reflected the Quaid’s convictions and established Pakistan’s unbending opposition to the establishment of a state created through injustice.
Another element of Jinnah’s decision lay in his keen political understanding. He foresaw that recognition of Israel by Pakistan would make the country complicit in an act history might condemn, and that it would risk alienating Pakistan from the broader Muslim world at a time when solidarity was crucial. He recognized that a Western-supported state implanted in the heart of the Arab world risked becoming a wedge for external domination—precisely the opposite of the dignity and self-determination he had championed for Muslims in South Asia. For a man whose life work was the dignity of his people, to endorse such a course would have been a betrayal of the very ideals on which Pakistan had been founded.
Quaid-e-Azam’s refusal to accept Israel was not a gesture of hostility toward any people; rather, it was a stand for justice, for the rights of the dispossessed, and for the dignity of the Muslim world. It was rooted in history, tempered by foresight, and ennobled by moral courage. His decision remains a cornerstone of Pakistan’s diplomatic identity—an enduring reminder that true leadership is measured not by short-term gain but by fidelity to principle. In the annals of history, Jinnah’s voice still calls nations to act from conscience; a nation born in the name of justice cannot stand with injustice.
