Thirty-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 people 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.

“It is like loving your own birth mother,” he said in Arabic, placated by the nods of other Palestinian nationals in the room.

The Palestinian mission had 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.

Without any input from Palestinians, US President Donald Trump announced last week a vision of Middle East peace in what Israel calls the “deal of the century”, in which a future Palestinian state can only be established under a series of strict conditions that include demilitarization and a formalization of Israeli occupation.

The proposal also suggests gifting Jerusalem entirely to Israel, while the future Palestinian capital would be set up in a West Bank village to the city’s east — Palestinians envision East Jerusalem, where the Al-Aqsa stands, to be their state capital.

“Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem [...] not only belongs to Palestinians, it belongs to all Muslims around the world. And we are really happy to see here the government, the Foreign Affairs Ministry, all Indonesian NGOs support the Palestinian cause,” said the embassy’s deputy chief-of-mission, Taher Ibrahim Abdallah Hamad.

As a staunch supporter of Palestinian independence, the Indonesian government views Israel’s occupation of Palestine as one of the last remaining cases of colonialism from the 20th century, which “must be eliminated” in accordance with the 1945 Constitution.

It has lobbied on behalf of Palestine and even offered tariff exemptions to dozens of Palestinian imports.

Indonesians have also happily rallied behind the Palestinian agenda, especially those among the conservative Muslim base, despite the conflict reaching a saturation point in past decades.

“We have a long history with Palestine. Even [Indonesian founding father] Sukarno had said that as long as Palestine is not free, then our mission has not been accomplished,” said Fitriyah Nur Fadilah, an organizer for the Adara Relief International NGO that was present at Wednesday’s gathering.

She said that Washington’s deal was simply detrimental to the future of all Palestinians.

The US peace plan was widely derided in the Muslim world; on Saturday the Arab League rejected the plan because it did not meet the minimum aspirations of the Palestinian people, a message that was echoed by the 57 members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation a few days later.

The Palestinian government went on to cut all ties with the US and Israel.

For its part, Indonesia insisted that the conflict could only be resolved based on the principles of the “two-state solution”, while highlighting the need for negotiating parties to continue adhering to “internationally agreed parameters”.

It remains to be seen whether Jakarta could leverage its clout on the matter this time around, after years of blocked attempts by Israel and its US benefactors.

Indonesia is currently working with Palestine and other like-minded partners on a draft United Nations resolution to reject the Washington proposal, which looks to be tabled at the UN headquarters in New York next week.

Regarding the proposed UN resolution, Deputy Ambassador Hamad said Palestine would not relent in its demand for a two-state solution with East Jerusalem as its capital, in accordance with the 2002 Arab Initiative that requires Israel to withdraw from territory it occupied after 1967. (tjs)

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