Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Monday told a gathering of Islamic leaders in Jakarta that patience with Israel "has long run out."
Joko said in a speech opening a summit meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in the Indonesian capital that "Indonesia and the Islamic world are ready to take concrete steps to push Israel to end its colonization of Palestine and its arbitrary actions in al-Quds al-Sharif [Jerusalem]."
The summit is being organized at the request of the Palestinian Authority and focuses on the Palestinian demands for statehood.
Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes, was among the leaders gathered in Jakarta. The ICC indicted him over war crimes and crimes against humanity in 2009 and on genocide charges in 2010, all relating to the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region. Members of the Hague-based ICC are obliged to arrest Bashir. However, Indonesia is not a signatory to the Rome Statues which form the legal basis of the ICC.
Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir insisted that Indonesia was obliged to invite all leaders of OIC nations to the summit, including Bashir. "OIC state leaders can come, and we treat all OIC members as state guests," he said. "We can’t just choose who we want to invite, and who we don’t want to." He added it was a matter between Bashir and the ICC, but not one for Indonesia.
At the summit, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas alleged that Israel's expansion of settlements was threatening the two-state solution. "We work constantly to bring back our land and ... to establish a national unity government," Abbas said in his speech at the summit.
Referring to Hamas, Abbas said "we have approached our brothers in Gaza. If there is goodwill, if there is a desire, we can establish a unity government in a few months."
