Islamabad: Pakistan’s social media users followed a trail of tweets between Ghinwa Bhutto, leader of Pakistan People’s Party-Shaheed Bhutto (PPP-SB), and Jemima Goldsmith, ex-wife of PTI Chairman Imran Khan, over a tweet by the former who inadvertently assumed Goldsmith spent recent holidays along with her sons Sulaiman Imran Khan, Qasim Imran Khan and an unidentified girl in Israel.
Ghinwa Bhutto uploaded on her twitter account a picture that showed all four of them in loose traditional religious clothes and posted the following caption: “Imran Khan’s family on a visit to the apartheid state of Israel. What does this mean to Pakistan?”
Pakistan has no diplomatic relations with Israel and public sentiment against Israel always is quite strong. The picture and post by Bhutto was re-tweeted and shared by many on their social media accounts and strong reactions and comments started pouring in.
It was also shared on a large scale by opponent political parties of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) particularly the PML-N and PPP for political mileage.
However, before the damage was done or things could go out of control and Imran Khan himself or his party spokesman could give any reaction to the post by Ghinwa Bhutto, Jemima Goldsmith came to the rescue of her family and her former husband.
In a replying tweet she made it clear that the picture was taken in Mexico not Israel.
Her tweet said: “That photo was taken on a family holiday in Mexico and we are wearing ponchos. This kind of ignorance and fear mongering is dangerous. Please stop.” She didn’t stop there and added further to her tweet “This tweet is staggeringly ignorant and would be funny if it weren’t dangerous. The photo is taken on a family holiday in Mexico (not Israel) and we are wearing ponchos (not Jewish religious dress) Ghinwa Bhutto — shame on you.”
Ghinwa Bhutto responded to Jemima by apologising to her and said that she had realised her mistake. However, she did not spare her for the last three words of her tweet and asked her not to lecture her on shame: “Oh my god! that was Mexico? My apologies! How perceptions can easily blind people, even me. But please, please do not lecture me about shame”
However, the war of words ended in an amicable way when Jemima accepted her apology with another tweet: “Apology accepted. Thank you. I know your own lovely children have been attacked unfairly for political reasons so I’d appreciate it if you’d please think twice before doing the same to mine. They are not involved in politics in Pakistan nor anywhere else.”
