W

e have recently heard that President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo has expressed his interest in visiting Gaza. Among other functions, he intends to inaugurate an Indonesian society-funded hospital in Gaza, as reported by Tempo.

However, his visit still depends on permission from the Egyptian authorities. It is not a simple thing to grant permission for a highly official to enter Gaza, which is still under Israeli siege.

In 2014, Indonesia'€™s lawmakers were not granted permission by the Egyptian government to enter, even though they had already arrived in Egypt. Their visit was designed to show their solidarity with the Palestinians, who were then suffering under the Israeli incursion of July 2014. Likewise, former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had also planned to visit Palestine in September 2005. However, his visit did not materialize and no explanation was given for its cancellation.

If Jokowi visits Gaza, it will not only be an historic event for Indonesia, but also for the world. He will become the first head of state from a country that does not recognize Israel to enter the occupied territories of Palestine. Under normal conditions, Israel as an occupying power would not allow such an event to happen. In 2012, along with 12 members of the Non-Aligned Movement Ministerial Committee on Palestine, then foreign minister Marty Natalegawa was denied entry into Ramallah.

These ministers intended to hold a special meeting there in August of that year. Aside from showing solidarity, they wanted to ascertain the effects of Israeli policies on Palestinian citizens.

If Jokowi manages to fulfil this plan, he will be hailed not only by different Muslim groups in Indonesia but also by the public at large. He will be regarded as a leader with a strong commitment to helping Palestine gain its full independence. He promised during the presidential campaign to take a stand on Palestine. The 60th Asia-Africa conference, which Indonesia hosted in April, resulted in a declaration of commitment and support among Asian-African countries for an independent Palestinian state.

During his presidential campaign, Jokowi and now Vice President Jusuf Kalla promised to open an embassy in Palestine. At that time, I thought that it was a utopian promise but nonetheless a standard one to be expressed during a presidential campaign.

However, his government has since proceeded with a plan to appoint an honorary consul in Ramallah. That plan was not able to be realized during the previous administration. The idea was initially raised during an open hearing between then foreign minister N. Hassan Wirajuda and the House of Representatives (DPR) Commission I in charge of foreign affairs in March 2006.

However, this idea lay dormant until the second term of Yudhoyono'€™s presidency, when pressure from the DPR on the issue increased. At that time, pressure from the DPR tended to be stronger.

This idea was expressed by former minister Marty during his meeting with the Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyadh Maliki on the sidelines of the Bali Democracy Forum III in Bali in December 2010. Marty wanted to expand relations between the two countries by setting up an Indonesian foothold in Palestine in the form of a diplomatic or consular mission in Ramallah.

Despite the lawmakers'€™ pressure, the government response was a realistic one, stating that it was difficult to open an embassy or consulate in the occupied territories.

Eventually however, the decision was made to appoint an honorary consul in Ramallah.

This is the most realistic effort that Indonesia has managed to achieve. Such a commitment has been affirmed by Foreign Minister Retno L. Marsudi. In her first annual press statement in January 2015, she stated that '€œto forge a closer relationship with Palestine, Indonesia will establish an Honorary Consulate in Ramallah in the near future to complement its embassy accredited to Palestine based in Amman, Jordan.'€

Since the Sukarno administration until the present administration, government policy and the public aspiration of Muslim groups has generally been aligned. Despite different attitudes and reactions within Muslim groups, from radical and militant groups to more moderate ones, their general views on Palestine are uniform. They believe that the Palestinians have lived long under the suppression of colonialist Israel, their rights have been violated and ignored by Israel and that the Palestinians have suffered persistent injustices due to Israel and its Western supporters, especially the US and the UK.

In general, Muslim groups also argue that international society, especially those represented in the UN Security Council, do little to solve the Palestinian question. UN members are unable to force Israel to comply with UN resolutions on Palestine. Muslim groups generally view that the US, as an advocate of human rights, has applied a double standard when it comes to Israel'€™s attitude and actions.

The basic argument of the Indonesian government'€™s policy towards Palestine is constitutional as the country'€™s constitution calls for the abolition of all forms of colonialism. Israel is seen as a colonialist power in the Palestinian territories. Therefore, the government believes that the main issues confronting the Palestinian territories are related to territorial problems, injustices and human rights violations, which combine together to create a persistent humanitarian crisis. However, Muslims also share the sense that the conflict between Israel and Palestine is related to religion, and constitutes a struggle between Islam and Judaism.

The government has formally never admitted that the Palestinian issue is related to religious issues.

However, since its people are majority-Muslim who perceive that the Palestinian cause is related to religion, willingly or unwillingly, the government has been forced to accommodate their people'€™s aspiration.

Thus, as stated by the Muslim scholar Bachtiar Effendy, the constitutional rhetoric has been in line with political domestic sentiment in which Indonesian Muslim people still perceive that the Palestinian cause is based on religious issues.

Therefore, Indonesian Muslims in general have felt that their aspirations on Palestine have been well accommodated by the government.
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The writer is a PhD candidate in political science and international relations, Victoria University of
Wellington, New Zealand.