Indonesia-Israel relations: why normalising ties for an OECD seat would be ‘political suicide’ for Jakarta

A supposed agreement for Jakarta to formally recognise and normalise ties with Israel ahead of a vote on Indonesia’s accession to the 38-member Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development was reported on last week by Israeli news site Ynet.

But for any Indonesian politician to “speak up about” normalising ties with the Jewish-majority state “would be committing political suicide”, according to Dina Sulaiman, founder of the Indonesian Centre for Middle East Studies. “The majority of the Indonesian public is still pro-Palestinian,” she told This Week in Asia.

To join the OECD, applicants must win the approval of all current member states, including Israel. Successful candidates “demonstrate … like-mindedness in their statements and actions in their relations with the organisation and its members”, according to the organisation’s road map to membership.

Ynet’s report, published on Thursday, cited a letter it said was sent last month by OECD Secretary General Mathias Cormann to Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz, stating that the organisation’s main decision-making body had “officially agreed to the clear and explicit early conditions according to which Indonesia must establish diplomatic relations with all OECD member countries before any decision is made to admit it to the OECD”.

The report further quoted a letter it said Katz had sent to Cormann on Wednesday last week, responding that he “anticipates a positive change” in Indonesia’s “hostile policy” towards Israel so that the two might establish ties. Indonesia’s accession to the OECD would take up to three years, the report claimed, with Israel holding veto power if Jakarta failed to normalise ties.

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