Danang Triatmojo, Jakarta – Pro-Palestine protesters from the Free Palestine Network (FPN) descended on the Egyptian Embassy in Menteng neighbourhood of Central Jakarta on Saturday afternoon August 2.
FPN Secretary General Furqan said that this demonstration was deliberately cantered in front of the Egyptian Embassy because it was aimed at putting public and political pressure on the Egyptian government so that they would open the Rafah border gate.
"Meanwhile we deliberately focused today's action in front of the Egyptian Embassy, for what? To exert political and public pressure on the Egyptian government to fully open the Rafah border", Furqan said at the protest site.
According to Furqan, Egypt is the most important country capable of helping the Palestinian people to escape the famine created by the Zionist state of Israel. As a neighbour, Egypt should assist Palestine by lifting the Zionist blockade.
"It's impossible for people to claim to be relatives and then remain silent", he said.
Furqan stated that Israel's aid blockade on the Palestinian border aims to achieve ethnic cleansing by starving the Palestinian people and then taking over the territory. This he said, has also be practiced by other countries such as expelling Indian and Aboriginal tribes in the United States and Canada, as well as Australia.
"This practice wants to be repeated by taking over Palestinian territory from the Palestinian people" he explained.
Furthermore, Furqan said that Indonesia also has a long history of anti-colonial struggle. Part of this was through the 1955 Asia Africa Conference in Bandung, West Java, where more than 40 newly independent countries attended and agreed that colonialism must be abolished.
To this day however, Palestine remains a county that is not yet independent. On the one hand, Indonesia still owes a historical debt to Palestine. At the Asia-Africa Conference, Indonesia pledged to support independence for all nations. This means that the struggle for Palestine is part of Indonesia's unfulfilled promise.
"At the 1955 Asia-Africa Conference, all 40 countries had become independent, except for one nation that is still not independent to this day: Palestine. Therefore, Palestinian independence is our shared historical debt", he concluded.
[Slightly abridged translation by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Kedubes Mesir di Menteng Jakarta Pusat Jadi Sasaran Demonstrasi Massa Pro Palestina".]
