Opinions divided on plan to open up trade with Israel
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)