TheJakartaPost
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Minahasa’s Holocaust museum and Indonesia's ties with Israel
Israeli has sought to entice Indonesia to open diplomatic relations through various means, including financial incentives of US$2 billion from the United States and large-scale technology transfers.
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German Ambassador to Indonesia Ina Lepel (right) delivers remarks to open Indonesia's only Holocaust Museum in Minahasa, North Sulawesi, in this screenshot of a video posted on her official Twitter account on Jan. 27. (Twitter/via @GermanAmbJak)
T
he mounting demands from the conservative Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) to shut down the newly inaugurated Holocaust Museum in the predominantly Christian province of North Sulawesi is indeed tragic because the museum is an everlasting reminder to all humans and nations not to repeat the barbaric butchering of about 6 million Jews by the Nazis during the World War II. Any denial of the human tragedy should be condemned, regardless of our anger with Israel’s occupation of Palestine.
The Jakarta Post quoted Sudarnoto Abdul Hakim, MUI deputy chairman for foreign affairs, as urging the local administration and central government to close the museum on suspicion it would pave the way for formalization of Indonesia’s relations with Israel. The museum, he claimed, contradicted the spirit of Indonesia’s support for the Palestinians.
“Indonesia is known to be at the forefront of defending Palestinian rights. Why is there this [museum] all of a sudden? I think it could hurt Palestinians,” he told the Post. Other media outlets quoted Sudarnoto as comparing the Holocaust to the Palestinian people’s decades-long suffering on their own land.
Accompanied by German Ambassador to Indonesia Ina Lepel and Jewish-Indonesian businessman Rabbi Yaakov Baruch, Minahasa Regent Royke Octavian Roring inaugurated the museum as a part of the International Holocaust Day commemoration, which falls on Jan. 27 every year. The museum is located inside the Sha’ar Hashamayim Synagogue, which was built in 2004. It is now the only synagogue in Indonesia, after a group of Muslim hardliners destroyed another one in Surabaya in 2009.
MUI should stop its narrative because it will only spark resentment from people in Minahasa regency and across North Sulawesi, one of the few Christian population bases in the majority-Muslim Indonesia.
It is true that the Palestinian cause has always topped Indonesia’s foreign policy agenda and that quite often certain groups have politicized it for their own interests, but we cannot actually do much to help the Palestinians gain independence.
Sudarnoto’s argument is too far-fetched, as it is impossible for Israel to persuade, let alone pressure, Indonesia to establish diplomatic relations with it. No Indonesian president will ever have the political guts or power to befriend Israel. The Abraham Accords signed by the United States, Israel and the United Arab Emirates in August 2020 will never have any influence in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country.
