Politically divided Indonesians unite for Palestinians

JAKARTA, Indonesia – While Indonesians remain extremely polarized as they wait for the official result of the presidential election on July 22, they found a common ground when it came to expressing support for Palestinians in Gaza.  

The Indonesian government has already condemned the Israeli military offensive in Gaza and pledged $1 million in humanitarian assistance to Palestine. Both presidential candidates – former military general Prabowo Subianto and Jakarta Governor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo – as well as their political allies have also added their voices to those expressing concern for the plight of the Palestinians. (READ: Indonesia: hentikan kekerasan di Gaza)

The support and expression of concern for Palestinians in this Muslim-majority country, however, isn’t limited to politicians and officials. 

Private initiatives

Regular Indonesians, in their own capacity, have launched various initiatives to express their support for the cause, such as the community of producers of hijab (headscarfs) led by businesswoman Elidawati Alioemar.

With her Bandung-based Muslim and general clothing brand “Dauky” and hijab brand “Elzatta”, Elidawati is collaborating with fellow hijab and Muslim fashion businesses to collect donations for Palestine.

“We have a total of 10 brands from 9 different companies that are expressing their support for Palestine,” Elidawati said, adding that the donations collected will be channeled through humanitarian agency Aksi Cepat Tanggap (ACT).

She said her company has always set aside some of its earnings for charitable purposes, and that they were collecting donations from customers for the construction of a mosque in Belgium through its stores and promotional channels such as social media.

“But then the Palestinian issue resurfaced, so we asked our fellow hijab makers to collaborate in raising support for Palestine,” she said.

Fundraising, awareness campaigns

For the One Day One Juz (ODOJ) community, the funds they are raising to support the Palestinians will be channelled through the Jakarta-based National Committee for Palestinian People (KNRP), said Haidir Doory, its project head for humanitarian assistance. A juz is an Arabic term used describe each of the 30 parts of the Quran.  

“We were targeting to raise IDR1 billion ($85,000) during this Ramadan month, but we have managed to collect IDR1.3 billion ($111,000) so far,” Haidir said, adding almost half the amount was collected during ODOJ’s solidarity rally in Jakarta’s Hotel Indonesia roundabout – a common venue for rallies and protests in the central business district – on Sunday, July 13, including $1,200 in cash donations and other goods such as gold coins and gadgets.

But ODOJ’s support for Palestine is not limited to collecting donations, though Haidir acknowledged that cash is what the Palestinians need most now.

“We also disseminate information on the latest situation in Palestine through our social media accounts to increase our community’s awareness of what is really happening there,” he said.

Collecting cash donations and spreading the word through its various social media accounts is also what the Indonesian Volunteers Society (MRI) does. It has a network of volunteers in 20 cities across Indonesia and in 6 other countries.

“We call for cash donations and report what our volunteers are doing on the ground through our social media activists,” Iqbal Setyarso, a spokesman for MRI, said. “We have collected IDR7 billion ($600,000) since April 9 and we are channelling the money through our local volunteers to operate our clinic in Gaza and to reconstruct houses demolished by the attacks.

“We also use the money to buy food packages for the locals to cook themselves and to establish mobile clinics. These initiatives were made based on the needs and requests of the local people,” Iqbal added.  

Timing factor

The fact that the attacks are happening during Islam’s fasting month of Ramadan made fundraising easier, as Muslims are encouraged to exercise more good deeds such as donating to charity during the holy month.

“There is a stronger motivation to help because this is happening during Ramadan,” ODOJ’s Haidir said.

Iqbal agreed, and said MRI has seen new names in their donors list since the attacks began.

“We’ve never had such massive public support for a cause like the one we’re seeing now. I think it’s because it’s happening during Ramadan, it brought up the ideological side of the issue and therefore strengthened the support for Palestine,” he said.

He also lauded the local media for continuing to report news on the crisis in Gaza. “I thought local media outlets would put this issue aside, with news on the presidential elections continuing to dominate, but it turns out that Indonesian media has shown consistency in reporting about this [Palestine] issue.”

Longer-term solution

Beyond supporting the Palestinians through cash donations, these civil society groups said they believe an independent Palestinian state is the solution to end the continued humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

“We support an independent Palestine. We believe that Palestine is now being colonized by Israel,” Haidir said.

However, he added that support from regular people and civil society groups, no matter how overwhelming, would be useless if nations and government officials don’t push for a permanent and peaceful solution in Palestine.

“We’re just like water used to put out a fire each time there’s one. What would be significant is diplomacy and the role of other countries, such as those in the United Nations or the Organization of Islamic Cooperation,” Haidir said, adding that condemning attacks or calling for Israel to end its military strike would not result in any significant development.

Beyond religion

As a Muslim-majority country, Indonesia’s support for the Palestinian cause is not surprising. But activists and civil society groups say that beyond religion, above all the situation in Gaza is a humanitarian crisis.

“This is a humanitarian crisis, therefore we have an obligation to help the victims no matter how small our contribution is,” Haidir said.

In fact, it’s not only the Muslims in Indonesia who are supporting the cause.

“What really stands out from this crisis is the humanitarian aspect, and the support shown here is by people from different faiths,” MRI’s Iqbal added.

Elidawati said she also hopes Palestine could become a fully independent state, but for now she will continue supporting humanitarian efforts there.

“The situation in Palestine continues to be volatile and it makes the people there – not just Muslims but also people of different faiths – more and more isolated,” she said. – Rappler.com