Protest call to occupy Australian embassy in Jakarta

Several hundred Indonesian protesters have demanded Canberra drop any plans to relocate its Israel embassy to Jerusalem.

Protesters outside the embassy in Jakarta yesterday. Picture: Amanda Hodge

Several hundred Indonesian protesters have demanded Canberra drop any plans to move its Israel diplomatic mission to Jerusalem, calling on other Islamic groups to occupy the embassy, raising ­security concerns over an issue that already threatens to derail one of Australia’s most important relationships.

Yesterday’s rally outside Australia’s Jakarta embassy was the fourth this week after earlier gatherings on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the latter ending after about 100 black-flag-waving protesters set a fire outside Australia’s largest mission.

Yesterday’s protest was a more peaceful affair, with the banner and flag-waving crowd made up mainly of students and middle- aged housewives.

Protesters warned any move to shift the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would be akin to “provoking Indonesian Muslims and Muslims around the world to fight against Israel and Australia”.

“That’s what will happen if Australia continues its plan to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,” lead protesters of the Indonesian Muslim League to Save Palestine warned over a loud speaker after Friday prayers.

“We want Australia to be friends with indonesia but if it follows in the footsteps of the US and acknowledges Jerusalem as the Israeli capital that is a huge mistake.”

Dozens of Indonesian police were deployed to protect the embassy yesterday, including members of the country’s elite Brimob (mobile brigade) paramilitary force that formed security lines outside the main entrance in suburban Jakarta. Any demonstration outside the embassy rattles nerves given the former compound was targeted in a 2004 car bomb attack by Jemaah Islamiah, which killed nine people and wounded at least 170 others. The new embassy, completed in 2016, was built with security in mind.

While numbers were far fewer than the thousand police had earlier estimated, many in yesterday’s group carried banners calling for the 212 Movement — an Islamic group instrumental in the jailing of Jakarta’s former Christian governor Basuki Tjahaja “Ahok” Purnama — to join the protest tomorrow when they are expected to march on Jakarta to mark the second anniversary of their half a million strong anti-Ahok protest.

“Instead of its reunion 212 alumni should join us to protest and occupy the Australian embassy in Jakarta rejecting plans to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,” said a press release distributed by the Muslim league at the rally.

But 212 spokesman Novel Bamukmin said the group would not participate in any demonstration until Australia had made a decision. “Of course we condemn the plan to move the Australian embassy but we must first wait to see how serious they are about this plan. If they do we will surely stage a massive demonstration. I’m sure every Muslim organisation will be involved, the same way everyone was involved in the demonstration in front of the US embassy,” he said.

Protesters demanded presidential challenger Prabowo Subianto retract comments last week that any decision on the location of the embassy was a sovereign one for Canberra alone.

Scott Morrison flagged the possible relocation of the embassy ahead of the Wentworth by-election in October. It backfired with Indonesia deferring a long-awaited free-trade agreement with Australia.

Rising tensions over the decision comes at a bad time for Indonesian President Joko Widodo who faces a likely tight election race next April amid an atmosphere of rising nationalism and increasing Islamic conservatism.

Mr Morrison told Jokowi (as he is known) at a meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Singapore last month that a ­decision would be made by Christmas.

Jokowi’s challengers have indicated they see the Indonesia Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA) as handing too great an economic advantage to Australia. Should Canberra go ahead with the shift Jokowi will face domestic pressure to punish ­Australia, possibly by nixing the IA-CEPA. Luhut Pandjaitan, ­Indonesia’s Co-ordinating Minister for ­Maritime Affairs Luhut Pandjaitan and a close political confidant of Jokowi, said yesterday he expected the deal to be signed by the end of this year. But there is growing ­opposition to it in parliament, ­including within the ruling coalition.

Indonesia is among the most strident supporters of a separate Palestinian state and the issue ­invariably elicits a strong popular response within the country.

The Trump administration’s decision earlier this year to move its embassy to Jerusalem sparked protests outside the US embassy in Jakarta.