In recent years, a small but notable number of Indonesian students have traveled to Israel to pursue educational programs, including at the Arava International Center for Agricultural Training (AICAT), the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, and even Ariel University, located in an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank. These exchanges, though limited in scale, raise serious concerns. They take place despite the absence of diplomatic relations between Indonesia and Israel—and more troublingly, they appear to contradict Indonesia’s long-standing support for Palestinian self-determination and its opposition to the Israeli occupation.

Indonesia has long championed the rights of the Palestinian people. That position is not a mere slogan or symbolic nod to global Muslim solidarity. It is rooted in anti-colonial conviction and the belief that a people under occupation deserve not just sympathy, but justice. Indonesia does not recognize Israel. It has, historically, refused to normalize relations so long as Palestine remains under occupation. That position has guided Indonesia’s foreign policy........

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