ISRAEL TIES WOULD BE ‘POLITICAL SUICIDE’
Jakarta rejects reports that it wants to establish diplomatic relations with country as a way to secure its membership of 38-nation OECD
Reports that Indonesia is considering establishing diplomatic relations with Israel as a way of securing membership in the OECD club of nations have been rejected by observers in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, who called such a move “political suicide”.
A supposed agreement for Jakarta to formally recognise Israel ahead of a vote on Indonesia’s accession to the 38-member Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development was reported on last week by Israeli news site Ynet.
But for any Indonesian politician to “speak up about” normalising ties with the Jewish-majority state “would be committing political suicide”, according to Dina Sulaiman, founder of the Indonesian Centre for Middle East Studies. “The majority of the Indonesian public is still pro-Palestinian,” she said.
To join the OECD, applicants must win the approval of all current member states, including Israel. Successful candidates “demonstrate … like-mindedness in their statements and actions in their relations with the organisation and its members”, according its road map to membership.
Ynet’s report cited a letter it said was sent last month by OECD secretary general Mathias Cormann to Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, stating that the organisation’s main decision-making body had “officially agreed to the clear and explicit early conditions according to which Indonesia must establish diplomatic relations with all OECD member countries before any decision is made to admit it to the OECD”.
The report further quoted a letter it said Katz had sent to Cormann last week, responding that he “anticipates a positive change” in Indonesia’s “hostile policy” towards Israel so that the two might establish ties. Indonesia’s accession to the OECD would take up to three years, the report claimed, with Israel holding veto power if Jakarta failed to normalise ties.
Indonesia denied the claims, with foreign ministry spokesman Lalu Muhammad Iqbal saying “there are no plans to open diplomatic relations with Israel, especially in the wake of Israel’s atrocities in Gaza”.
“Indonesia’s position has not changed and we remain firmly in support of Palestine’s independence within the framework of a two-state solution. Indonesia will always be consistent and be at the forefront of defending the rights of the Palestinian people.”
At a meeting of OECD ambassadors in January, Israel reportedly raised objections to Indonesia joining the organisation given the absence of diplomatic ties between the two countries.
The Ynet report was not the first this year to claim that Indonesia was preparing to recognise Israel. US-based media outlet Jewish Insider reported in February that the two countries had been set to announce an agreement in October, just before Hamas launched its deadly attack that sparked the war in Gaza.
The Jerusalem Post earlier reported that Indonesian Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto, now the nation’s president-elect, had led an effort to cooperate on agriculture, leading Prabowo to issue a statement denying any such partnership.
Indonesia will be at the forefront of defending the rights of the Palestinian people FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESMAN
Whatever the truth of the reports, Jakarta would likely find it impossible to normalise relations with Israel at the moment given public sentiment amid the bloody Gaza war, in which more than 33,000 Palestinians have died.
“Especially in the last few months, public sentiment has been very pro-Palestinian, as people are concerned about what is happening in Gaza,” said Sulaiman. “I am sure that normalisation with Israel will not happen in the near future.”
A survey by Singapore’s ISEASYusof Ishak Institute released this month showed 74.7 per cent of Indonesian respondents viewed the Israel-Gaza war as their top geopolitical concern.
Israel was likely pursuing diplomatic normalisation with Indonesia to build upon the Abraham Accords, agreements it reached with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and other Arab countries beginning in 2020, said Siti Mutiah Setiawati, who lectures on Middle Eastern politics at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta.
“There will be turmoil and waves of dissent within society [if such ties were established],” she said. “Indonesia’s most consistent foreign policy is the Palestinian issue.”