Our hearts go out to the victims and their families in Gaza and the families of those who were brutally murdered in southern Israel. This conflict demonstrates one thing: some people are more important than others. For the murder of children of other ethnic groups, the world doesn’t care. This is not to say that the death of women and children in Israel and Gaza is not an important global issue. It is. However, when the world turns a blind eye to the death of women, children, and old people in other parts of the world, this sort of quick response to condemnation and UNSC meeting is hypocritical, to say the least. The killing of innocent people is happening every day in West Papua, and the international community doesn’t care. The comments by the Indonesian Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, is a good example of the hypocrisy of so-called world leaders who are condemning Israel and other countries for things they are doing in their own backyard, whether it is Uyghurs in China or West Papua in Indonesia.
Palestine and West Papua
Illegal occupation
The Foreign Minister of Indonesia conveyed her government’s statement to the UNSC two days ago, and also echoed the same sentiments at the UNGA in support of a resolution condemning Israel. In it, she accused Israel of “illegally occupying” Palestinian lands. The Widodo government argued that the conflict is the result of the decades of “illegal occupation” of Palestinian lands by Israel, thus, siding with Hamas.
There’s debate to be had when it comes to the land of Palestine. Depending on which land is being referred to, arguments can be made pro and against Israel. However, the so-called “colonialism” or “occupation” is a different story. Jews and Palestinians have connections to the Holy Land that stretched back to about two thousand years. Applying that to the situation in West Papua is a different story. There’s no doubt Indonesia is the colonizer and occupier of West Papuan ancestral lands—lands Jakarta has no connection; lands they occupied through military conquest. That is colonialism in its purest form. Listening to her blasting Israel in support of the resolution is somewhat ironic considering she represents a government that colonized West Papuan lands for more than five decades.
Solution: Two States
Marsudi argued that the solution to the conflict is an independent Palestine. She joined others in calling for a 2-state solution to the conflict, yet she – like the rest of them – never mentioned Hamas, and the fact that her government is guilty of the same charge. This is the same Indonesia that has spent millions of dollars to silence support for the independence of West Papua from regional actors. She’d successfully swayed support for West Papua within the Melanesian Spearhead Group and the PIF by giving them hundreds of millions of dollars in so-called “development funds.” Oh, the irony.
Other than preaching to the UNSC and the UNGA and condemning Israel for hitting back at its enemy, how about Indonesia packing up and leaving West Papua? Instead of calling for a two-state solution to the conflict in Palestine, how about allowing West Papuans to vote for their own self-determination? How about allowing West Papua to become an independent state — a right afforded them by international law? Instead of calling Israel an occupier, maybe she should look in the mirror because she and her government know full well they are illegally occupying West Papuan lands. Shamelessly lambasting a sovereign nation for the very thing they are doing to West Papuans is the definition of hypocrisy!
Free West Papua.
Let Palestinians and Israelis sort out their differences. Indonesia should focus on its illegal occupation of West Papua, and live up to its own words. Leave West Papua to West Papuans!
Please read the Washington Solution here.