Indonesian Hajj Jamaah Meat Dispatched to Palestine

JAKARTA - The Government of the Republic of Indonesia (RI) has agreed with the management of meat and Hajj in Saudi Arabia, the Adahi Project, to distribute most of the meat and dam belonging to prospective pilgrims from Indonesia to the Palestinian people.

Deputy Minister of Hajj and Umrah Dahnil Anzar Simanjuntak said the move was a manifestation of the real concern and mandate of the President of the Republic of Indonesia to give higher attention to the Palestinian people.

"We have agreed and specifically asked the Government of Saudi Arabia through Adahi to distribute this dam meat to the Palestinian people. Adahi has expressed his willingness," said Dahnil as reported by ANTARA, Saturday, May 23.

In addition to Palestine, continued Dahnil, some of the dam meat will also be distributed to people in need in other Middle Eastern countries.

In addition to the success of humanitarian diplomacy, the Ministry of Religion this year also made a new history in the management of the hajj, especially regarding the data collection of dam payment and prospective hajj pilgrims which is much more organized.

Based on provisional data until Friday (22/5), it was recorded that 126,832 prospective hajj pilgrims had been clearly recorded with the payment method. Of this number, as many as 90,956 prospective hajj pilgrims chose to pay through the Adahi facility in the holy land.

Meanwhile, as many as 32,691 prospective pilgrims chose to perform the dam in their homeland through official zakat amil institutions or personally.

"However, there are also prospective pilgrims who pay the dam by fasting, namely 3,195 people, and those who perform ifrad or do not need to pay the dam as much as 1,076 people," said Dahnil.

This data collection achievement has jumped very drastically and positively compared to last year. In the previous hajj season, out of a total of 221 thousand prospective pilgrims, only about 10 thousand people were detected to carry out dam in an organized manner, namely 8 thousand through Adahi and 2 thousand in the country.

Dahnil said that the data of prospective pilgrims who have fulfilled the dam obligation is still very likely to increase and will continue to be updated periodically by the Ministry of Religion.