Govt condemns Israel over Arafat
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government condemned Israel on Friday over its plan to forcefully oust Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and warned that such a move would only destabilize security conditions in the region.
It also expressed the country's readiness to mobilize support from member countries of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to oppose the move.
"Indonesia strongly condemns Israel's plan to oust Arafat because it will only worsen the situation (in the Middle East country)," spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Marty Natalegawa said on Friday.
Israel's security cabinet vowed on Thursday to "remove" the Palestinian president, referring to him as "the obstacle to reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians." And accused him of backing militant groups in the region.
The statement came following the killing of 15 Israelis carried out by Hamas militants in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on Tuesday.
Under U.S. pressure not to exile Arafat, Israel gave no timeframe for any move against him nor did it make any direct reference to expelling him.
The Israeli pledge touched off the protest of tens of thousands of Palestinians.
The Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported on Friday that Arafat had been confined to his headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah for the last 20 months.
Arafat had shown defiance and vowed in front of his supporters that he would stay in the office and lead the Palestinian people towards peace.
Marty said the government believed that Arafat played a central role in ensuring the ongoing peace process in the middle east, especially between Palestinians and Israelis.
"We believe that ousting Arafat will only further push away efforts to bring peace to the region," Marty said in a weekly press briefing.
Indonesia, the world's biggest Muslim country, has constantly supported Palestinians and acknowledged the sovereignty of the country by supporting the Palestinian embassy here.
Indonesia also supported peace efforts dubbed "road map" to settle the matter, introduced by the United States and European Union.
Marty said that the matter would likely be discussed in the coming annual session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly on Sept. 23.
President Megawati Soekarnoputri is slated to attend the annual session at the UN headquarters in New York.
A show of support for Arafat was also expressed in many parts of the world, with the strong statement of the EU underlining that ousting Arafat would be a "terrible mistake." EU consists of 15 countries.
The Arab league had also issued a similar statement saying that ousting Arafat would be a disastrous move and would only hurt the region.
About 80 percent of Indonesia's 215 million people are Muslim. The government has no diplomatic relations with Israel and has been a consistent critic of its Palestinian policies.