Opinions divided on plan to open up trade with Israel

JAKARTA (JP): The government's intention to open trade relations with Israel continued to provoke mixed responses on Thursday.

More than a 100 University of Indonesia students and 150 Muslim youths staged a demonstration on Thursday at the House of Representatives to protest against the government's foreign policy.

They yelled anti-Israeli slogans and carried banners highlighting Israeli human rights abuses on Palestinian people. They also burned Israeli flags.

The protesters urged the House to press the government to drop its plan.

One of the demonstrators, Ardju, said students and Muslim youths will oppose attempts to open any ties with Israel as long as the Jewish state does not respect the rights the of Palestinians.

"Indonesia must avoid any ties with Israel because that country is widely known as an aggressor and human rights violator. Trading with that country will be a betrayal to Muslim people," he said.

On Wednesday the Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI) also opposed the government's policy, and urged the government to cancel it for the sake of the country's ties with Palestine.

President Abdurrahman Wahid and Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab have said trade relations with Israel will attract Jewish companies in the United States to invest in Indonesia, and strengthen Palestine's peace negotiations with that country.

In a separate rally the Ummat Protection Front (FPU) demanded on Thursday that the government cancel its plan because the Jewish people had illegally occupied Palestinian land.

"The government's plan is against Islamic principles," FPU Chairman Muhammad Al-Khatath said.

In Bandung, West Java, hundreds of students from the Indonesian Muslim Students Front (KAMMI) took to the streets to protest the government's policy on Israel.

They said the foreign policy would hurt Indonesian Muslims and Palestinians, who have long fought for freedom. "Israel always cheats us and thus we cannot trust them," the protesters yelled.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Bishops Conference (KWI) said the Catholic church always gives moral support to any kind of relation with any country in the world, as long as it will benefit Indonesia.

"We do not see any theological obstacle to Indonesia's plan to open trade ties with Israel," KWI chairman Bishop Yosef Suwatan told reporters on Thursday.

Yosef said if opening relations will benefit the country, the church will support the government. (04/43/rms)