WASHINGTON — President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has met with U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington on Monday (13/11/2023) local time. Jokowi stressed the need for a ceasefire in Gaza.
During the meeting, Jokowi urged the US to do more to stop the “atrocities in Gaza”. “Ceasefire is a must for the sake of humanity,” Jokowi said.
Before going to the United States, Jokowi first attended the Arab-Islamic Extraordinary Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. According to Jokowi, he also delivered the results of the summit which strongly condemned Israel's incursion into Gaza and urged a ceasefire. Jokowi also stated he brought a special message from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to Joe Biden.
Indonesia, which is the country with the largest Muslim population, has long supported the Palestinian struggle for independence. Later, following Israel's brutal attack on Gaza, protests and fundraising continued to take place in various parts of Indonesia.
The movement to boycott the products of companies that support Israel has also gained popularity in the community following a fatwa from the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) on this issue. Many of the companies boycotted were U.S.-based companies.
The US is one of Israel's main supporters. In the wake of the Hamas attack on October 7, Biden stressed Israel's right to retaliate, a move that was seen as a green light for the carnage in Gaza. The US also supplied Israel with ammunition and other weapons during the Jewish state's massacre in Gaza.
Despite mounting public pressure and widespread calls from top U.N. officials and human rights groups for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, the Biden administration is still resisting. The U.S. says it says that the move benefits Hamas.
Instead, the US is pushing for a “pause” in the fighting to aid the release of captives held in the Gaza Strip and allow humanitarian aid into the territory.
Later, Israeli troop movements outside al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest hospital, have prompted thousands of people to flee the sprawling medical facility, but hundreds of patients and others displaced by the war remain inside the hospital.
President Joe Biden said al-Shifa Hospital “must be protected” and called for “less intrusive measures” by Israeli forces.
Al-Shifa has been without electricity and water for three days and “no longer functions as a hospital,” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Sunday. He said there had been gunfire and bombings outside the compound.
Patients there include dozens of babies who are at risk of dying from lack of electricity, health officials at the facility said. More than two-thirds of Gaza's 2.3 million people have left their homes since the war began.
Gaza City, the largest urban area in the region, is the focus of Israel's campaign to crush Hamas following the resistance group's deadly October 7 incursion into southern Israel that sparked the war.
More than 11,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of whom are women and minors, have been killed since the war began, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, which does not distinguish between civilian and militant deaths. About 2,700 people were reported missing.
More than 1,200 people in Israel were killed, most of them killed in Hamas attacks, and about 240 hostages were taken hostage from Israel to Gaza by Palestinian militants.
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