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Love for the motherland: Homesick Palestinians extol Indonesian support
The Palestinian mission in Jakarta set up a gathering of Palestinian nationals, sympathizers and local Muslim grassroots figures in order to canvass more support from the Indonesian public and reject the United States’ one-sided Middle East peace plan that was announced last week.
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President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo receives Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Oct. 15, 2018. The meeting was held to discuss the support of the Indonesian government and people for the state of Palestine.JP/Seto Wardhana (JP/Seto Wardhana)
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hirty-two-year-old Palestinian migrant Mahmoud Omar can say unabashedly that he has learned to love Indonesia like he would his own wife, but that it would never measure up to his love for his homeland.
Having come to Indonesia a little over a year ago, and now living comfortably as a teacher at the Al-Masyhad Islamic boarding school in Sukabumi, West Java, Omar said he felt the Indonesian people had welcomed him with open arms.
He also felt the extent of Indonesia’s support for Palestinian statehood, which comes almost naturally for a country with the world’s largest Muslim population.
Omar said he believed in the prophetic hadith (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) that a group of Muslim peoples would stand firm in preserving the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, a sacred site for the major Abrahamic faiths and one of the flashpoints of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
“I believe that Al-Aqsa belongs to Palestine and it belongs to the Muslims,” Omar said.
The mosque is the third-holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia; Muslims believe that Muhammad was transported from Mecca to Al-Aqsa as part of his physical and spiritual journey that is celebrated every year in the Isra and Mi’raj.
However, despite Indonesia’s undying empathy for Palestinians, a void in Omar’s heart still beckons his return. “Even though my life is good here, I miss Palestine,” he told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday on the sidelines of a gathering at the Palestinian Embassy in Jakarta.
