Dr. Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat – At the United Nations General Assembly this week, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto delivered a speech that many in Jakarta framed as a defense of Palestine. He described the catastrophe in Gaza, used the word "genocide," and called for Palestinian statehood. Yet almost in the same breath, he added that Palestine's independence must be accompanied by "guarantees of Israel's safety and security."

Netanyahu pounced. He singled out Prabowo's remarks as "full of passion" and "a sign of the future." For the Israeli prime minister, facing global outrage over his government's campaign in Gaza, Prabowo's words were not a rebuke but a gift: an endorsement he could weaponize to show that even the world's largest Muslim-majority nation now spoke of Israel's "security."

But let's be honest about what "Israel's security" means today. It does not mean peace for ordinary families. It means the freedom to bomb Gaza into rubble, the protection of armed settlers who torch villages, the perpetuation of walls and checkpoints that control every aspect of Palestinian life. To guarantee Israel's "safety" is to guarantee the continuation of apartheid and genocide.

Prabowo's formulation was not balance. It was complicity.

Indonesia's foreign minister, Sugiono, seemed to recognize this danger when pressed about Netanyahu's praise. "That is his position, don't ask me," he told reporters, insisting that Indonesia's priority remains recognition of Palestinian independence. But the nuance was lost the moment Netanyahu seized the microphone. In the arena of global politics, words are not judged by their intent but by how they are used – and Netanyahu used Prabowo's words to sanitize his crimes.

This episode illustrates how the old script of the "two-state solution" has become a trap. For three decades, it has served as a shield while Israel annexed land, built settlements, and entrenched apartheid. The map between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean is already one reality: not two states, but one apartheid system. The two-state mantra no longer offers a path to peace. It offers cover for dispossession.

Recognition of Palestine, as Prabowo urged, is meaningless if not tied to accountability. Britain and France have both recently extended recognition, yet they continue to arm Israel and protect it diplomatically. Recognition without consequences honors Palestine in speeches while erasing it on the ground.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu used his time at the U.N. to deny the undeniable. He claimed Israel was "feeding" Gaza, boasting of shipments of food. Yet Gaza's Health Ministry reported that 404 people – 141 of them children – have already died this year from malnutrition under Israel's siege. To speak of Israel's "security" while Palestinians starve is to confuse the freedom of the jailer with the rights of the imprisoned.

Indonesia should understand this better than most. Imagine its founding fathers, during the fight against Dutch colonial rule, declaring that independence must depend on guarantees for settlers' security. Such a condition would have been intolerable. Yet this is precisely what Prabowo demanded of Palestinians.

By refusing to name Israel as the perpetrator of the genocide he referenced, Prabowo blunted his own critique. By invoking balance, he handed Netanyahu a soundbite. What should have been a speech of solidarity became, in Netanyahu's hands, a tool of propaganda. Surely, when Benjamin Netanyahu finds your words useful, you should ask yourself why.

The lesson is clear: in moments of genocide, careful ambiguity does not protect the oppressed – it empowers the oppressor. Netanyahu will quote you, strip your words of nuance, and turn them against the very people you claim to defend.

The world does not need more leaders offering Israel "security guarantees" while Gaza lies in ruins. It needs leaders willing to call things by their names: Israel is a settler-colonial apartheid regime, guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. It needs leaders who will demand consequences – arms embargoes, sanctions, boycotts, prosecutions. Anything less is silence dressed up as diplomacy.

Prabowo said the world must not remain silent. He is right. But silence is not only the absence of words. It is also the repetition of platitudes that obscure the truth. To guarantee Israel's safety while Palestinians are buried under rubble is to remain silent in the language of power.

Netanyahu quoted Prabowo. That should trouble us. Not because Prabowo supports Israel – he does not, at least not openly – but because his words were malleable enough to serve Netanyahu's purposes. In the struggle against apartheid and genocide, there is no safety in ambiguity.

The choice is stark: apartheid or equality, genocide or justice, complicity or resistance. History will remember not only those who spoke, but also those whose words were quoted – and by whom.

[The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.]

Source: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250927-netanyahu-quoted-prabowo-indonesia-should-be-ashamed