Indonesian FM on foreign tour in support of Palestine

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi with her Palestinian counterpart in Amman on Tuesday. (AN photo)

JAKARTA: Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi is visiting Jordan, Turkey and Belgium, and meeting with her Jordanian and Palestinian counterparts, in response to US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
After attending the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Summit in Istanbul on Wednesday, she will visit Brussels to meet EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and lobby the bloc not to follow the US move.
Rallies have been held in Jakarta almost daily against the US decision, one of them organized by the Indonesian Volunteers Society (MRI).
The coordinator of the MRI Jakarta chapter, Robi Andriana, said donations collected at the rally will be given to the Jakarta-based humanitarian body Aksi Cepat Tanggap (ACT) to help Palestinians.
“Currently, we have 50 MRI members in Jerusalem running a public kitchen for locals who guard Al-Aqsa Mosque,” he told Arab News.
“We set up the kitchen on Friday in anticipation of the ‘day of rage’ following the US announcement.”
The head of the Indonesian National Committee for Palestinians (KNRP) has urged the Indonesian government to demand that the US withdraw its decision within seven days or have its ambassador expelled.
“The core of our foundation is to support Palestinian independence through people-to-people relations,” KNRP spokesman Zakaria Maulana Arif told Arab News.
“We’ve been raising awareness among the Indonesian public about the problems faced by the Palestinian people,” he added.
“We’ve held concerts (to raise funds for Palestinians) in major cities in almost every main island in the country.”
One such concert in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan province, in 2015 raised 1 billion Indonesian rupiah ($70,000), Arif said. “We had people donating their assets such as land, cars and jewelry for us to auction.”