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Indonesian schools ready to welcome Palestinian children: Prabowo
The plan to provide sanctuary for the Palestinian children, Prabowo said, came from the initiative of former East Java governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa and leaders of several pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) in East and West Java.
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Defense minister and then presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto greets residents while visiting Zainul Hasan Genggong pesantren (Islamic boarding school) in Probolinggo, East Java on Dec. 2, 2024. (Antara/Irfan Sumanjaya)
D
efense Minister Prabowo Subianto announced the country’s plan to host Palestinian children temporarily, in addition to continuing to dispatch medical and humanitarian assistance to the Gaza strip.
“As an initial step, we are ready to accept 1,000 Palestinian children who have been traumatized [by the current Israeli aggression in Gaza] to be schooled here. But, in time, we will return them [to Palestine],” Prabowo said at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Thursday, adding that the plan had been applauded by many countries.
The plan to provide a sanctuary for the Palestinian children, Prabowo went on, came from the initiative of former East Java governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa and leaders of several pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) in East and West Java.
A similar plan has been touted on multiple occasions by the defense minister, yet Prabowo has yet to reveal the details of the arrangement. Indonesia has not ratified the United Nations 1951 Refugee Convention, thus the country is not legally obliged to host refugees.
Read also: Prabowo’s Gaza diplomacy
Even so, Indonesia – particularly the predominantly conservative province of Aceh – has accommodated thousands of Rohingya refugees displaced by a Myanmar military crackdown in 2017.
