Israeli media have claimed that Indonesia is about to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel in exchange for the latter’s support in its accession bid to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
THE STORY
The Israeli newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, first broke the news of the potential rapprochement, citing confirmation from an anonymous Israeli official.
Indonesia’s Deputy Speaker of the People’s Consultative Assembly, Hidayat Nur Wahid, has publicly denied the reports citing previous repudiations by Indonesian media of similar claims made by Israeli newspapers:
This news, which originated from Israeli source, has been officially denied by the Indonesian Government and the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. You can read it again in the link I attached below. It is better to keep united in supporting Palestine than become the victims… https://t.co/WKAlO3dyiQ pic.twitter.com/UTiCn1rzl4
— Hidayat Nur Wahid (@hnurwahid) April 11, 2024
Indonesia which represents the world’s largest Muslim nation does not recognise the Jewish state and President Widodo had previously declared that any normalisation talks would be conditional upon the creation of a Palestinian state.
“Despite the rapid changes in the Middle East, Indonesia will not take any steps to normalize with Israel until a permanent and comprehensive peace is achieved between the Palestinians and the Israelis,” Widodo had assured the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas back in 2020.
The OECD Secretary-General, Mathias Cormann, had addressed the issue in a recent letter to Israel’s Foreign Minister, stating that “any future decision to accept Indonesia as a member of the organization will require unanimous agreement among all member countries, including Israel”.
The Israeli newspaper has additionally claimed that a potential breakthrough between the two nations could come against the backdrop of “three months of discreet negotiations”.
In any case, if Israeli reports are confirmed and the alleged normalisation talks yield success, Indonesia would make the 39th member of the OECD and the first Muslim country to recognise Israel after the Abraham Accords.
On a different note, an Indonesian military aircraft notably flew for the first time to Israel on Tuesday to conduct a humanitarian aid drop in cooperation with the IDF:
The growing relations between Indonesia and Israel. ????
The Indonesian Air Force worked together with the Israeli Air Force to drop humanitarian aid to people in Gaza.
It’s the first time in history that an Indonesian military aircraft flew in Israel. pic.twitter.com/tko3nv0b3u
— Hananya Naftali (@HananyaNaftali) April 11, 2024