Indonesia agrees to take in 2,000 Gazans – temporarily

The spokesman emphasized that the purpose of taking in the Gazans was for treatment and wasn’t intended to be a permanent relocation.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Indonesia is in the process of converting an abandoned medical facility on the island of Galang to treat 2,000 wounded Gazans, a spokesman for the president announced Thursday.

The facility was used in 2020 to treat COVID-19 patients, and before that, it was a refugee camp for those fleeing the Vietnam War.

The Muslim-majority nation has been providing aid to Gaza since the war began.

The spokesman, Hasan Nasbi, emphasized that the purpose of taking in the Gazans was for treatment and wasn’t intended to be a permanent relocation.

He said, “Indonesia will give medical treatment for 2,000 Gaza residents who are victims of war — those who are wounded, buried under debris.”

President Prabowo Subianto floated the proposal a few months ago before it was soundly rejected by the country’s Muslim clerics, who felt the idea too closely resembled U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to relocate Gazans to other countries.

Indonesia, which believes in a two-state solution, emphasized that the patients would return to Gaza at the completion of the treatment.

At the time of Trump’s proposal, Indonesia said it “strongly rejects any attempt to forcibly displace Palestinians.”

Galang, which is almost uninhabited, is close to the island of Sumatra and south of Singapore.

For months following the announcement of Trump’s relocation plan, Israeli and U.S. officials were searching for countries that would agree to take in Palestinians.

Many countries refused either because of security concerns or because they were opposed to the relocation of Palestinians in principle, since they preferred the notion of a two-state solution.

“I think President Trump has a brilliant vision, it’s called free choice,” the Israeli premier said shortly after the relocation proposal was unveiled.

“If people want to stay, they can stay, but if they want to leave, they should be able to leave. It shouldn’t be a prison. It should be an open place and give people a free choice.”