MUI Expects Foreign Minister Retno To Convince International Courts About Israel Doing Genocide In Palestine

JAKARTA - The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) hopes that the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Menlu) Retno Marsudi will convince the International Court of Justice (ICJ) or the International Court that Israel has been proven to have violated various international law, including war crimes and genocide.

For this reason, the Head of the MUI for Foreign Relations and International Cooperation, Sudarnoto Abdul Hakim, also asked Foreign Minister Retno to attend the ICJ forum.

"The presence of the Foreign Minister at ICJ is expected to succeed in convincing the ICJ that Israel has been proven to have committed various international violations including committing genocide and war crimes," he said in a written statement, Tuesday, January 23, which was confiscated by Antara.

Foreign Minister Retno representing Indonesia will deliver a verbal statement in the form of a legal opinion before the International Court regarding violations of international law by Israel against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Legal opinion is scheduled to be conveyed by Foreign Minister Retno in The Hague, Netherlands on February 19.

MUI, continued Sudarnoto, fully supports the strengthening of Indonesia's diplomatic position, especially in solving Palestinian problems.

The MUI hopes that justice will truly be upheld through the International Court (ICJ) and also the International Criminal Court (ICC) so that there will be sanctions on the Israeli state as well as on Israeli officials who have made decisions to commit major crimes. Even the American government is also fully responsible for all of these Israeli crimes," he said.

Sudarnoto said the steps taken by the Indonesian government through Foreign Minister Retno in various multilateral UN and OKI forums and with various countries separately were very appropriate steps and needed to be carried out progressively and measured in the future.

MUI gives high appreciation as well as full moral support for the steps taken by the Indonesian Foreign Minister. MUI calls on all elements of the nation regardless of their religious background, profession, organization to continue to work hand in hand to provide support to the Foreign Minister and help continuously the Palestinian people," he said.

Regarding South Africa's move to file Israel's crimes at the ICJ and ICC, he said that it gained good momentum, among others, first, the cabinet government of Benjamin Netanyahu has now begun to lose public trust in Israel.

Not a few Israelis have criticized PM Netanyahu for continuously committing crimes while many Israelis are still in Hamas custody. In fact, three former Israeli PM figures also opposed Netanyahu, "he said.

Second, Israel desperately needs diplomatic, political and military support from the US. Meanwhile, the US itself has begun to 'chain' to serve Israel's wishes, let alone a permanent ceasefire and the two-state solution is ignored by Israel.

Israel does not want a Palestinian state. This difference in America-Israel's attitude can be used as a momentum to weaken Israel or to sharpen differences so that both are weak by itself," said Prof Sudarnoto.

Third, he continued, the international public pressure was getting stronger by very diverse elements of society.

Fourth, the Biden government, like Netanyahu, is actually also experiencing strong pressure at home. Even Americans themselves have begun to split between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli. All of this is a momentum to continue to exert global pressure both on Israel and the United States," he said.