Published: 19 August 2022
Last updated: 5 March 2024
While Jakarta is reluctant to advance diplomatic ties with Jerusalem, there is room to expand trade and economic relations.
An Israeli delegation visited Muslim-majority Indonesia in late July. The organiser, the Israel-Asia Centre, said the trip was intended to explore the potential for bilateral connections through investment, start-up ventures and social impact initiatives.
As the two countries do not maintain diplomatic relations and Israelis rarely receive visas to visit Indonesia, the Israeli delegation was composed of people with dual citizenship. Israel does offer visas under certain conditions for Indonesian Christian and Muslim pilgrim groups wishing to visit the Holy Land.
The Israel-Asia Centre, an Israeli non-profit organisation, runs leadership programs in a wide array of sectors, including business, investment, media, education, government, diplomacy, tech, health care and international development. It operates not only in Asian countries with whom Israel has diplomatic ties but also in some countries that have no diplomatic ties with Israel, such as Indonesia and Malaysia. To date, it has secured over $250 million in investment between Israel and Asia.
Israel and Indonesia have taken a few steps toward diplomatic rapprochement but each time, the Indonesian leadership backed away, saying that relations would be established after advancements on the Palestinian issue.
After the 2020 signature of the Abraham Accords between Israel, Bahrain, the Emirates, Morocco and Sudan, some reports claimed Indonesia would be next to normalize ties with Israel and that the Trump administration offered Jakarta billions of dollars in additional US financial support to Indonesia if it joined the Abraham Accords.
US Secretary General Antony Blinken raised the issue with his Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi when they met in Jakarta December 2021. Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Teuku Faizasyah confirmed in a statement at the time that diplomatic ties with Israel were discussed in the meeting by Blinken, but said that Marsudi insisted Indonesia’s position remain consistent with the Palestinian cause.
In January, then-Foreign Minister Yair Lapid raised the issue publicly. Speaking on Israel's Army Radio, Lapid said Israel was looking to "expand the Abraham Accords to additional countries" beyond Bahrain, the Emirates, Morocco and Sudan. "If you're asking me what the important countries that we're looking at are, Indonesia is one of them, Saudi Arabia of course, but these things take time," he said.
In other diplomatic news, Israel and Turkey have resumed full diplomatic relations.
Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke on Wednesday and agreed on reinstating their respective ambassadors and general consuls, thus restoring full diplomatic ties.
Lapid said in a statement that "restoring ties with Turkey is an important asset to the stability of the region and bears great economic significance to Israel's citizens.
Ankara and Jerusalem both withdrew their respective ambassadors following the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2018, following more than a decade of tensions between the two capitals, including over such incidents as the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident in which nine people were killed by Israeli troops on a Turkish ship attempting to break the blockade of the Gaza Strip.
et despite the lack of high-level diplomatic relations, Israel has retained several back-channel communication methods with Ankara, which was previously a close regional ally, and Erdogan had told Jewish leaders that his country’s relationship with Israel is “vital for the stability of our region” and that “we must all work together to strengthen peace and stability in the Middle East.”
Despite this, he and his associates kept up a steady stream of critical (and sometimes antisemitic) remarks, with Erdogan accusing Israel of "killing children and babies” as recently as last week. During his remarks, he stated that his administration's regional diplomacy and said ties with Israel "are back on track," and serve to "defend the rights of our Palestinian brothers and sisters.”
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Israeli delegation pays rare visit to Indonesia (Al-Monitor)
Photo: Jakarta skyline (Wikipedia)
