Thousands hold rally in Indonesia to protest US embassy move to Jerusalem
JAKARTA: Thousands of Indonesian Muslims rallied in Jakarta Friday against US President Donald Trump’s controversial decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The protest was the latest in a series of protests across the Islamic world sparked by Trump’s announcement in December.
The Trump administration is also moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. It is due to be inaugurated on Monday.
Thousands of protesters gathered in the Indonesian capital’s National Monument park, waving Palestinian flags and carrying banners — including one that read “Stop, Trump!”
Earlier on Friday, President Joko Widodo reiterated Indonesia’s support to the Palestinian people.
“We, together with all Indonesian people, will continue to fight with the Palestinians. Palestine will always be at the centre of Indonesia’s diplomacy,” he said at the opening of a meeting of Islamic scholars from Indonesia, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Indonesia — the world’s largest Muslim-majority country — does not have diplomatic ties with Israel.
The question of Jerusalem is one of the thorniest issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The American president’s unilateral decision on Jerusalem delighted Israel, which considers the entire city its capital. But it enraged Palestinians, who want to make the eastern — mainly Palestinian — part of the city the capital of their future state.