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Jewish Times Asia July / August 2018
Regional News
Indonesian Islamic leader attends conference in Israel
Yahya Staquf is the Secretary General of the 60-million-member Nahdlatul Ulama movement, the largest traditionalist Sunni Islam Muslim organisation in Indonesia, established in Jakarta in 1926. Braving angry protests at home, he was in Israel in order to spread what he called a message of interfaith compassion. Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim country, does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, and support for the Palestinians there is strong. Staquf’s presence triggered angry reactions, as seen on Indonesian social media. However in an interview prior to the visit, Staquf said he remained committed to the visit and hoped the controversy would bring more attention to his message of tolerance. “Some people here are amazed by my decision to come, because they think it must be dangerous for this man to come, thinking that many, many Muslims must be threatening him with death or something,” Staquf told The Associated Press. Staquf addressed the AJC conference, appearing along-
Yahya Staquf at the AJC conferecne
side a rabbi in his discussion. His also had meetings at Israel’s Hebrew University and talks with local Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders.
ing in Myanmar, where 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh to escape persecution by the country’s security forces.
One of the highlights during his stay was a meeting with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on 14 June, at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem. Prime Minister Netanyahu told him that many Muslim countries are getting closer to Israel for various reasons. The first is security – the common struggle against the Iranian regime and ISIS, and the second is technology. “Israel is the innovation nation, and I’m very happy to see that the Arab countries and many Muslim countries getting closer to Israel. I hope that we have some movement with Indonesia,” said Prime Minister Netanyahu.
But Staquf remains aware of the “magnitude” of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict. “We are facing a civilisational problem here, and it is related to religions,” he said. “As Muslims, we want to do our part related to our religion.”
Staquf said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was not the sole focus of his trip. Instead, he said, he was looking at interfaith co-operation as a basis for solving many conflicts, includ-
Al Quds Day marches held in the UK and Germany As in recent years, thousands of demonstrators rallied through London and Berlin on 9-10 June for the annual Al Quds Day marches. Al Quds Day was initiated by the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979 as a day of support for the Palestinians and a call for the destruction of Israel. The anti-Zionist and ultra-Orthodox Neturei Karta organisation was applauded by participants for its role in the event, in which Israeli flags were stomped on, ripped and burned. While the US, Israel, Canada, the Netherlands and even the Arab League consider Hezbollah as a whole to be a terrorist organisation, Germany and the UK are among the European nations that still differentiate between its political and military wings. While the military wing is outlawed, the
portions of Islam that he considers problematic, including how Muslims interact with nonMuslims. He stated that there needs to be “a new discourse” to recognise that Muslims and nonMuslims are equal and should be able to coexist peacefully. “These elements are problematic because they are not compatible anymore with the current reality of our civilisation.”
political wing is still considered “legitimate”. Small counter-protests were organised by pro-Israel groups in Berlin and London. In London, Israel supporters played the Israeli national anthem and the song Toy loudly on speakers. Toy was the Israeli winning entry in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. In advance of the march in the UK, a spokesperson for London Mayor Sadiq Khan said: “Anti-Semitism or hate crime of any kind has no place in our city or in our society. Sadiq has written to the Home Secretary to raise his deep concerns about the support shown for Hezbollah at the annual Al-Quds Day march. He has called on him to urgently reconsider his predecessor’s decision not to take action to stop this.”
Staquf said he has identified
In Indonesia, Twitter and Facebook have been filled with negative comments about the visit. Many people are upset about the situation in Gaza. A montage of Staquf’s photo and the Israeli and NU flags went viral online. It was captioned: “When Muslims are wounded by an Israeli attack, the NU representative goes to Israel. This visit is a form of recognition of the state of Israel, hurting the hearts of Muslims and Palestinians.”
Taufiqulhadi, a member of parliament from the National Democratic Party, one of the parties in the government coalition, said “the majority of Indonesians” do not want diplomatic relations with Israel. In a letter to Indonesia’s foreign minister that was published online, Staquf said the government could “deny” his actions if they were deemed harmful to state interests. “But if there is a ‘benefit’, let’s follow it up to be a real advantage.”
GPO/Haim zach
A top member of Indonesia’s largest Islamic movement visited Israel in June, at the invitation of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), a US advocacy group that was holding a major conference in Jerusalem.
Yahya Staquf meets Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu