A chant in Gontor, a gateway in Cairo
Jakarta (ANTARA) – Three weeks before welcoming Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to Merdeka Palace, President Prabowo Subianto stood at the lectern in the meeting hall of Pondok Modern Darussalam Gontor in Ponorogo. At the pesantren’s centenary celebration on 19 September 2026, as he greeted those attending, he came to the turn to acknowledge Palestinian Ambassador Abdalfatah Al-Sattari.
Prabowo clenched his fist and shouted, “Free Palestine” three times. Thousands of students responded in unison. The ambassador hurried on to the stage, draped a keffiyeh over the President’s shoulders and embraced him.
The chant was easy to remember, but difficult to measure. A slogan only carries weight when it finds a way to be put into practice. For anyone seeking to help Gaza, that route almost always runs through one country: Egypt.
Prabowo’s meeting with el-Sisi on Sunday, 11 October 2026, followed on from the Gontor speech. In a joint statement, the two heads of state agreed to continue humanitarian assistance to Palestine. They also said they would help advance the peace process and take part in Gaza’s recovery and reconstruction.
They reaffirmed that establishing a Palestinian state through a two-state solution is the only path to peace in the region. What began as a chant before a crowd of students was now jointly articulated with a partner that controls the border gateway.
A longstanding course
Indonesia’s position on Palestine is rooted in the first paragraph of the preamble to the 1945 Constitution, which rejects colonialism in all its forms. Sukarno gave that principle an unequivocal expression in 1962, when Jakarta denied Israel’s delegation a place at the Asian Games.
That position was subsequently translated into diplomatic action. On 16 November 1988, a day after the Palestine National Council proclaimed independence in Algiers, Algeria, Indonesia was among the first countries to recognise the State of Palestine. A year later, Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas and Palestinian Foreign Minister Farouq Kaddoumi signed a joint communiqué establishing diplomatic relations. The signing also marked the establishment of the Palestinian Embassy in Jakarta. To this day, Indonesia has never established diplomatic relations with Israel.
Under Prabowo, that stance has been reinforced with a clearly stated sequence of conditions. At the 2025 United Nations General Assembly, he said Indonesia would recognise Israel only after Israel first recognised Palestinian independence and statehood. From the same podium, he said Indonesia was ready to send up to 20,000 personnel for a peacekeeping mission in Gaza or other conflict zones. A few weeks later, he flew to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, to attend the Gaza Peace Summit. Indonesia’s solidarity is no longer limited to sympathy; it is an offer to play a role.