Indonesia joins Saudi call for OIC to thwart Israeli annexation plan

Indonesia urged member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to respond collectively to the Israeli prime minister’s vow to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank if he is re-elected next week. (Reuters)

• In a statement issued on Wednesday, its Foreign Ministry slammed his plan as “contradicting international law and various UN resolution”
• Netanyahu said that if returned to power in the election on Sept. 17, he would extend Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea

JAKARTA: Indonesia urged member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to respond collectively to the Israeli prime minister’s vow to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank if he is re-elected next week.
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, described Benjamin Netanyahu’s vow as “dangerous.”
In a statement issued on Wednesday, its Foreign Ministry slammed his plan as “contradicting international law and various UN resolutions, as well as threatening the continuation of the peace process.”
Also on Wednesday, the OIC said at Saudi Arabia’s request, it will hold an emergency meeting of foreign ministers in Jeddah on Sunday to discuss Netanyahu’s controversial vow.
He said in a televised speech on Tuesday that if returned to power in the election on Sept. 17, he would extend Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea.
The move would reshape the protracted Israeli-Palestinian conflict and reduce Palestinian land to enclaves encircled by Israel.
“Indonesia is urging a resolution to the Palestinian issue based on a two-state solution and internationally agreed parameters,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah.
Dr. Luthfi Assyaukanie, international relations lecturer at Paramadina University in Jakarta, told Arab News that Indonesia is “highly regarded by OIC countries,” and its “role in the politics and foreign policy of other Muslim states is becoming increasingly important.”
Indonesia is a vocal supporter of Palestinian independence, which has been part of its foreign policy since the early 1960s.
Officials regularly quote a 1962 vow attributed to the country’s first president, Sukarno, that “Indonesia will challenge the Israeli occupation until the Palestinian nation becomes independent.”
Palestinian statehood is among Indonesia’s priorities for its 2019-2020 membership in the UN Security Council.
In May, at a council briefing, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi reiterated the Indonesian government’s stance that “there is no alternative to the two-state solution.”
In 2017, Indonesia fiercely opposed US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, since the Palestinians see the city as their future capital.
Indonesia also condemned the consequent relocation of the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.  
When in October 2018, Australia’s then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison said his government would also move its embassy to Jerusalem, an immediate backlash from Indonesia — Australia’s biggest regional partner — was seen as key in making him eventually drop the plan.