JAKARTA – A photo of five members of Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia’s largest Islamic organisation, with Israel president Isaac Herzog triggered heavy criticism after it appeared on social media.
Five members of Indonesia’s largest Islamic organisation have come under fire for visiting Israel and meeting with Israeli president Isaac Herzog as the war in Gaza rages on.
Channel News Asia (CNA) said that Indonesia does not have diplomatic relations with Israel and has been vocal in condemning Israel’s attacks on Gaza, while providing aid to Palestinians.
The Indonesian government has distanced itself from the trip by the five activists of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), saying it does not reflect the government’s official position.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not in a position to comment on the visit, which is not related in any way to the official position of the Indonesian government,” ministry spokesman Roy Soemirat said as reported by news outlet Kompas.
The visit came to light after a participant, NU scholar Zainul Maarif, shared a group photo with Mr Herzog on Instagram on Jul 7, which triggered a wave of condemnation that forced him to disable the comments section of his account.
Besides Mr Zainul, who is a philosophy lecturer at the University of Nahdlatul Ulama Indonesia (Unusia), the four other activists who met Mr Herzog were Mr Munawir Aziz, Ms Nurul Bahrul Ulum, Mr Syukron Makmun and Ms Izza Annafisah Dania.
It is not yet known when the meeting took place but in his Instagram caption, Mr Zainul said they spoke about the Hamas-Israel conflict and relations between Indonesia and Israel.
“I am not a demonstrator, but a religious philosopher. Instead of demonstrating on the streets and boycotting, I prefer to discuss and express ideas,” he wrote.
According to an NU scholar Nadirsyah Hosen, the visiting programme to Israel by Indonesian scholars has been running for years but tends to cause controversy each time a trip becomes public.
In 2018, for instance, prominent NU figure Yahya Cholil Staquf was criticised for meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He is NU’s current general chairman after being elected to the post in 2021.
The latest visit by the five activists is said to be in their personal capacities, but NU and Islamic leaders in Indonesia say they should have known better.
While they were personally invited through the Harvard alumni network for academic and startup purposes, according to Dr Nadirsyah, their affiliation with NU would have been a major reason they were invited.
“If they were just ‘activists and scholars’, I am sure they would not have been invited to meet the president. It is precisely because they are NU members that they were invited,” wrote Dr Nadirsyah, who is also an associate professor at Melbourne Law School, on his Instagram account.
NU leaders and members should refuse such invitations for as long as the current conflict in Gaza persists, he opined.
“The only one who benefits (from this visiting programme) is Israel with a visit from NU,” he said.
The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), a body of the country’s top Islamic scholars, said it “deeply (regretted)” the visit at a time when tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed by Israel.
NU chairman Syafi Alielha said the meeting showed a lack of understanding of geopolitical conditions and NU’s policies, and added that it did not represent the organisation.
“We don’t know what the purpose is and who sponsored it. This is a regrettable act,” he said in an official statement posted on NU’s website on Sunday (Jul 14).
NU secretary-general Saifullah Yusuf said the following day that NU is seeking clarification and will summon the five activists for an explanation.
If found to have violated any of the organisation’s principles, they could be dismissed from their NU positions, he said.
Unusia also said it would convene an ethics hearing on Mr Zainul and said the group’s visit has harmed its reputation.
“Unusia fully supports Palestinian independence and strongly condemns the practice of genocide by Israel against the Palestinian people which is still ongoing,” the university said in a statement.
Founded in 1926, NU promotes a moderate brand of Islam and has around 91.2 million members, based on 2019 data from Indonesia’s Ministry of Home Affairs. Indonesia’s second-largest Islamic organisation, Muhammadiyah, has around 60 million members.
This is not the first time an issue related to Israel has stirred outrage in Indonesia amid the war in Gaza, which has killed over 39,000 people, according to the local health authority.
In April, Indonesia’s foreign ministry rejected media reports suggesting the country would normalise diplomatic ties with Israel in exchange for membership at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
