Indonesia loves to tell the world it stands with Palestine. The government has no official relations with Israel. Leaders speak about Palestinian freedom at the United Nations. Millions of Indonesians, the largest Muslim population on earth, see the Palestinian cause as their own.

But inside Indonesia, elected politicians openly admire Israel and pay no price for it. The clearest example is Arya Wedakarna, a senator from Bali in Indonesia’s regional assembly, the DPD.

In 2015, during a public discussion in Denpasar, Wedakarna declared that Bali could become “like Israel” one day, since both are small territories surrounded by bigger neighbors and must fight to survive. He reached for an old Balinese idea, “puputan,” a fight to the last breath, to glorify a state built on the displacement of another people.

Eleven years later, that comment reads less like a throwaway line and more like a preview. When Israeli-owned businesses in Bali became national news this month, Indonesian commentators pointed straight back to Wedakarna’s old remarks, arguing it was no coincidence that Israeli residents were now operating openly on an island whose own senator once said he wanted it to resemble Israel.

Indonesia’s immigration ministry was forced to publicly respond, confirming that Israeli nationals living and running businesses in Bali largely travel on foreign passports through dual citizenship.

Indonesia’s immigration ministry was forced to publicly respond, confirming that Israeli nationals living and running businesses in Bali largely travel on foreign passports through dual citizenship.

His admiration does not stop at Israel’s border. Indonesian users on X recently uncovered that........

© Middle East Monitor