Under pressure from right wing protesters, Pakistan’s government declared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a terrorist Friday, demanding the leader be brought to justice for alleged war crimes against Palestinians.
The statement by Rana Sanaullah, adviser to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on political and public affairs, was part of a deal with a religious political party, Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan or TLP, to end its days-long sit-in on a key road outside the capital.
“Netanyahu is a terrorist and a perpetrator of war crimes,” said Sanaullah, acceding to a key TLP demand. The adviser sat flanked by TLP leaders and Minister for Information Attaullah Tarar at a press conference in Islamabad.
Thousands of TLP supporters rallied near the capital last Saturday to condemn Israeli strikes in Gaza. They demanded the government declare Netanyahu a terrorist, boycott Israeli products and send aid to Palestinians.
After the rally, many continued a sit-in at a busy interchange that connects Islamabad to the neighboring garrison city of Rawalpindi, causing a severe disruption for commuters.
“We demand that he [Netanyahu] be put on trial,” the Pakistani prime minister’s top aide said Friday. “We wholeheartedly condemn this cruelty [Israel’s actions in Gaza], Israel, and all the powers that are involved in it.”
The radical TLP has a history of bringing the government to its knees through public agitation. In 2017, thousands of its supporters held a nearly three-week sit-in against an amendment to the oath for parliamentarians, paralyzing the capital.
Pakistan does not have diplomatic or trade ties with Israel, a state Islamabad has not recognized. It supports the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders.
Despite no trade ties between the two countries, many Pakistanis have called for a boycott of Israeli products as well as Western brands seen as supportive of the Middle Eastern state.
“We will not only boycott Israel, but all products related to it, and companies that are directly or indirectly involved in this cruelty or are helping those forces,” Sanaullah said, adding that the government will form a committee to research which products had links to Israel.
The government also promised the radical party it will send more than 1,000 tons of relief supplies for Palestinians by the end of the month. Since October of last year, Pakistan has sent nine humanitarian aid shipments to Gaza.
More than 38,000 Palestinians are estimated to have been killed and public service infrastructure decimated in Israeli operations meant to eliminate Hamas. The military action came after the militant group struck Israel on Oct 7, 2023, killing nearly 1,200 civilians and taking more than 250 hostages.
On Friday, the International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, declared Israel’s settlement policies and exploitation of natural resources in the Palestinian territories were in breach of international law.
South Africa is pursuing a genocide case against Israel in the U.N.-affiliated court, based at The Hague in the Netherlands. While the court declined to declare Israeli actions in Gaza a genocide, it has called on Israel to halt military actions in parts of the Gaza Strip and not engage in actions that could cause further harm to Palestinians.
The chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court recently sought arrest warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as three Hamas leaders, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Israel and the United States condemned the court’s action, saying Israel had the right to defend itself.
Pakistan’s foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, has called the situation in Gaza a genocide.
In April, the U.N. Human Rights Council adopted a non-binding resolution Pakistan presented on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, calling for an end to the sale, transfer and diversion of military arms and equipment to Israel.
