Published: 19 August 2022
Last updated: 5 March 2024
While Jakarta is reluctant to advance diplomatic ties with Jerusalem, there is room to expand trade and economic relations.
An Israeli delegation visited Muslim-majority Indonesia in late July. The organiser, the Israel-Asia Centre, said the trip was intended to explore the potential for bilateral connections through investment, start-up ventures and social impact initiatives.
As the two countries do not maintain diplomatic relations and Israelis rarely receive visas to visit Indonesia, the Israeli delegation was composed of people with dual citizenship. Israel does offer visas under certain conditions for Indonesian Christian and Muslim pilgrim groups wishing to visit the Holy Land.
The Israel-Asia Centre, an Israeli non-profit organisation, runs leadership programs in a wide array of sectors, including business, investment, media, education, government, diplomacy, tech, health care and international development. It operates not only in Asian countries with whom Israel has diplomatic ties but also in some countries that have no diplomatic ties with Israel, such as Indonesia and Malaysia. To date, it has secured over $250 million in investment between Israel and Asia.
Israel and Indonesia have taken a few steps toward diplomatic rapprochement but each time, the Indonesian leadership backed away, saying that relations would be established after advancements on the Palestinian issue.
After the 2020 signature of the Abraham Accords between Israel, Bahrain, the Emirates, Morocco and Sudan, some reports claimed Indonesia would be next to normalize ties with Israel and that the Trump administration offered Jakarta billions of dollars in additional US financial support to Indonesia if it joined the Abraham Accords.
US Secretary General Antony Blinken raised the issue with his Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi when they met in Jakarta December 2021. Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Teuku Faizasyah confirmed in a statement at the time that diplomatic ties with Israel were discussed in the meeting by Blinken, but said that Marsudi insisted Indonesia’s position remain consistent with the Palestinian cause.
