29 Dec 2020; MEMO: A senior Indonesian MP has said that his country will never normalise relations with Israel, confirming that the US offered it $2 billion to make such a move, Shehab news agency reported yesterday.
Chair of the Committee on Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation in the Indonesian House of Representatives, Fadli Zon, said that the US had applied much pressure on his country in order to normalise its ties with Israel in return for helping it improve its economic conditions.
During a meeting held by the Parliamentarians for Jerusalem Association, Zon said that the condition of the Palestinian cause is turning from bad to worse due to the "blind" US bias towards Israel and its disregard for Palestinian rights.
Zon added that the US had exerted pressure on Arab and Islamic states in an effort to encourage them to normalise relations with Israel.
He stressed that the Indonesian president, foreign minister and parliament "are clearly against the idea of normalisation with Israel," noting that such a move would only benefit Israel while setting back Palestinian rights and international justice.
The Indonesian official reiterated that "it is impossible" for his country to normalise with Israel, stressing that Israel "is an occupation state" which has occupied a Palestinian land, and the normalisation of ties with it "is against the Indonesian Constitution."
Zon reiterated that the latest normalisation agreements "encouraged" Israel to continue its violations against the Palestinians, as well as increase settlement building.
He called on the international community to face off settlement building which challenges the international resolutions and undermines the two-state solution.
