The Board of Peace (BoP) is an international body established at the initiative of US President Donald Trump and formalised through United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 2803. Its mandate covers oversight of the Gaza peace process and the channelling of reconstruction funds through the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza. When Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto signed the BoP charter on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos on 22 January 2026, the domestic reaction was swift and sharp. Within days, Indonesia’s most influential Islamic leaders had split into openly competing camps, with the Palestinian question — as it so often does in Indonesian public life — providing the fault line. Twelve days later, Prabowo invited 16 Islamic organisations to the Presidential Palace for a closed-door session, and the wave of opposition that had looked formidable largely receded. That meeting was a carefully staged exercise in legitimacy management, one that reveals how deeply Prabowo’s foreign policy calculus depends on harnessing the moral authority of faith-based organisations (FBOs) to absorb domestic pressure.

Member states were required to contribute USD 1 billion as an entry fee to the charter — a figure that carries fiscal weight given the budgetary strain Prabowo’s administration faces from its domestic spending commitments. Indonesia joined alongside Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia. Major Western powers — the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and France — declined membership, citing the risk that the BoP might sideline the United Nations. Human Rights Watch cautioned in March 2026 that Indonesia needed to ensure its participation remained narrowly focused on reconstruction, not on lending credibility to a broader geopolitical architecture — a concern made more pointed by Indonesia’s role as deputy commander of the International Stabilisation Force (ISF) operating in Gaza.

The initial backlash from Indonesia’s Islamic community was organised and substantive. The Deputy Chairman of the Indonesian Ulema Council (Majelis Ulama Indonesia, MUI), Sudarnoto Abdul Hakim, expressed pointed scepticism, arguing that the BoP’s leadership was dominated by actors with a long and troubling record on Palestine. Another MUI figure, Cholil Nafis, called for Indonesia to withdraw. Meanwhile, survey data cited in a March 2026 policy report from the School of International Studies (RSIS) found that 14.6 per cent of informed respondents viewed the BoP as an American and Israeli instrument to consolidate control over Gaza — a figure that understates the depth of popular unease among those who followed the issue closely.

Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah are organisations with tens of millions of members reaching from pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) in East Java to religious study circles in Papua.........

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